Digimon: Darkness Rises
by nstar93
Summary: It had been just a regular day at summer camp, complete with Nora and Katie lounging around and doing as little work as possible. But after they decide to kick back and relax with their fellow counselors at a party later on that day, things go from good to bad in minutes. Spotting a person in the water, Nora races to help them and comes across a massive sea beast...
1. Chapter 1:The Journey Begins

"He is so hot." Katie mumbled as she readjusted her sunglasses and leaned back. "Look at him! There's no way he's even real. All this sunlight and mugginess and campiness must be messing with my head!"

I looked at her with a smile playing on my lips. "Campiness?"

Katie didn't let my comment get to her. She rubbed her eyes as if the sight of Dustin Pearson playing with the sticky fingered first graders was a mirage.

"He's real." I sighed. "And he's the guy that girls like us never get."

"I'm sorry," Katie said as she lifted a finger, her eyes still locked on Dustin. "Did you just say something that crushed hopes and dreams for the future?"

"If by crushing hopes and dreams you mean a reality check, then yes, yes I just did." I said.

"That's why I block you out sometimes." Katie said as she turned slightly and then swooned. "Then there's him too! I'm telling you Nora, we're surrounded by the hottest guys this stupid, ugly and disgusting camp has to offer."

"Guys that we have yet to speak to." I added.

"Guys that will speak to us the minute we prove ourselves worthy."

"Guys that would take one look at us, smile and speed off in the opposite direction."

"Guys that if you don't stop talking will hear you talking about them."

"Guys that if they hear us talking about them will not likely know what we're even talking about."

Katie glared at me and I giggled.

"You're such a downer." She whispered.

"You're such a dreamer." I countered and she shrugged.

"I'm sixteen years old and my parents rushed me off to this disgusting and poor excuse for a fun summer vacation because I refused to go to summer school. I live in regret every time I have to wake up and watch these little punks roll around in the dirt and jab their glue covered fingers into my skin." Katie sighed. "The least I can do is a dream about having a camp romance."

"With guys that we'll be going back to school with once it's over." I said. "Who even if they do meet us and we hook up will probably not look at us once school starts."

"I can live with that." Katie said after a few moments.

"Katie!" I snapped and she laughed.

"What? Like you wouldn't too? I would sleep just fine at night if a guy like Dustin never looked at me and then _kissed_ me?! I'd be in heaven." Katie said.

"Care to talk any louder so they can really hear us?" I snapped as I lightly slapped her arm.

"You should go talk to him." Katie winked. "Unless you want to decide right now who gets who."

"What?" I laughed.

"You can have Dustin and I'll take Connor." Katie smiled.

"What if I want Connor? Wait, hold on a second, why am I even having this conversation with you?"

"Oh Connor Goodwin and all of his muscles." Katie sighed dreamily. "I'll have fun with him in my fantasies."

"What about Connor?" A small voice asked.

Katie and I nearly jumped out of our skin as we watched Connor, the blonde muscle kid at the edge of the camp collecting firewood for the bonfire in a few hours. We looked down at Connor's little sister, Jules Goodwin, with her big brown eyes, tamed golden brown hair, and fair skin.

She might have looked like the sweetest kid in the world, but over the past few weeks we discovered her true colors. She was spoiled and rotten and she knew about all the girls who craved her brother's attention. She made their lives hell always threatening that she would tell him about their crushes and promising that she could make it work between the two. Of course I had to stop Katie from agreeing to let Jules stay up later just so she could get a few moments alone with Connor. It wasn't easy considering how boy crazy Katie was growing each day. Watching their muscles flex each day wasn't easy.

"Nothing." Katie muttered with a forced smile on her face. "Little demon spawn."

I slapped her arm, not caring if it hurt her or not. Once I had gotten Katie to say no, Jules made it very clear that she didn't like it. A few days later she played a prank on the both of us after we walked into the supply shed. Somehow her little third grade mind made a glue bomb. The effects were horrific and when we emerged from the shed covered in glue, she had gathered a small audience to point and laugh at us. Luckily none of the boys were there but I was sure that they had heard. The camp counselors found it funny how Katie screamed in horror as she looked at her glue covered body. I didn't find it very funny when I had to help scrub it out of her hair.

Jules smiled. "Are you dreaming about my brother again?"

Katie was about to answer when a new voice joined our conversation.

"Why are you two just sitting here?"

We looked up and saw Grayson Hill staring down at us. He was a year older than us and a supervisor of all the camp counselors. It was a high honor, the ability to boss around whoever you wanted, whenever you wanted. If only the other supervisor who watched over him knew that he was a complete nerd and the only reason anyone who was below him listened was because they did whatever he asked on their own time, which was whenever we felt like doing it. Honestly, he didn't have what it took to be a leader and the mere fact that he thought he could attempt to be bossy to everyone else was a big fat joke. Connor and Dustin put him in his place on day one and now he tries to act tough, but once someone gets tough with him, he reverts back to the shy quiet kid who eats with all of his card playing friends by the trash at lunch.

"Grayson, what a surprise!" Katie smiled as she stood up and I followed.

"You know we have a lot of work to do, right?" Grayson said.

"Of course, we were just taking a breather." Katie smiled.

"For the past fifteen minutes?" Grayson said as he tapped at his watch.

I looked at the big glasses on his face and the sickly pale skin. He was asthmatic and with his greasy curly hair, he wasn't exactly a looker either. He was scrawny and tall and his lips were so red it was like he wore lipstick and all he put was cherry chap stick.

"We're hard workers." Katie continued.

"No, get back to work." Grayson said as he pointed to what we had been doing for about five minutes before we decided it was time to relax. We were stacking the wood that Connor and the other kids brought over.

"And you," Grayson said as he looked down a smiling Jules. "Go back to playing with your friends."

"You can't tell me what to do clown boy." Jules snapped before giggling and skipping off to her friends. Katie erupted into giggles while Grayson seemed to turn red for a split second before shaking his head at us.

"Get moving!" He snapped and I pulled a hysterical Katie toward the unstacked logs.

"He's such party pooper." Katie groaned as we lifted a log.

"He's doing his job, unlike us." I said as we eased it down with the others.

"I didn't hear you complaining about it." Katie said as she stuck her nose up at me. I laughed as I stared into the darkness of her nostrils.

"We have to work before he goes and rats us out to the higher ups." I said.

"They'll ship us back home." Katie said.

"Where we'll get yelled at and your parents will probably sign you up for boot camp." I added as we lifted another log.

"True that." Katie said as she shook her head. "They could've just shipped me off to China and I could've worked like a dog with uncle."

I laughed.

"But I just hate," She grunted as we placed the log down. "I just hate that you had to sign up for this place with me."

"I'm not gonna let my best friend rot in a place like this." I said as I squeezed her arm. "Why rot alone when we can rot together?"

"That's my motto!" Katie winked at me.

We both laughed as Connor eased down a heavy log. He looked at us and we looked at him. I could practically feel the heat from Katie's face on mine, unless I was blushing too. Her eyes were wide and I found that he was looking at her, clearly wondering if she was okay.

"Thanks." I offered, my voice shaky.

Connor looked at me, his light blue eyes scanning my own quickly before he turned and headed to get more logs.

"Nice." Katie swallowed. "He's totally into you."

"How are we gonna lift this?" I asked as I tried to pick up an end. "Do we look that strong?"

"No, you two look like men." A voice said as the body it belonged to sauntered by.

After shooting each other an eye roll, we turned to see Lauren Wall walking by without shooting us a look. She was a tall and fit tan skin girl. When she wasn't cheering with her cheerleading squad thing, she was busy hating on everyone who wasn't in her close circle of friends. She had picked on Katie and I for as long as I could remember and while we brushed it off most times, sometimes she would say it loud enough for other people, preferably crushes, to hear. In this case she had said it loud enough so that people shot us confused looks but anyone in earshot of Katie and I's conversation could hear. While small giggles broke out, I forced a smile onto my lips.

"Keep the jokes coming Lauren! We've been hearing that one all summer." I called after her while she smirked and flipped her hair.

"It just never gets old!" She called back.

"Why do we get yelled at and she gets to walk around like she's the freaking princess of this camp?" Katie growled as we struggled to lift the log and opted to drag it instead.

"Because she's like the queen of the school." I grunted as we pulled. "Everywhere she goes, she does nothing. I've never even seen her lift a pen."

"I've never seen her do anything but complain and flirt with Connor, who if we thought didn't pay us any mind, shows no interest in her!" Katie snapped.

"I wonder why Jules doesn't give her a hard time but gives everyone else." I said as we stopped to breathe and wipe the quickly gathering sweat from our brows.

"Because Jules is a snotty little cheerleader in training." Katie mumbled. "And Lauren is the Queen/captain of all the cheerleading people. Jules can learn a lot from her, sadly."

"So maybe if you had something to offer Jules you could be the same way." I smiled.

"If only I had something interesting to offer. I can help her study but a girl like Jules isn't interested in that." Katie shook her head.

"True, I guess. But even if she was you have another problem too." I said as I lifted the log again and Katie bent down to help.

"What?" she huffed.

"You suck at talking to boys that you like."

"Huh? Since when?!"

"Connor was looking right at you and all you did was stare at him with your mouth open. He was looking at you because he thought something was wrong with you." I said.

"Huh?!" Katie screeched as she dropped the log and I nearly fell face first onto the log.

"It's true!" I breathed. "Now a little help, please?"

"I just freaked out, it won't happen next time. I was blinded by the beauty radiating from his pores! He's never been so close to me before. I could _smell_ him!" Katie said as she went off to ConnorLand, with her eyes wide and barely helping me tug.

"Hey guys, spread the word!" A voice called as it came up behind us. Katie snapped out of her fantasy and I looked at Austin Green with his shaggy brown hair, bright brown eyes and perfect smile. He wasn't like Connor or Dustin, but Austin was funny and he actually spoke to us without worrying about what his jock friends thought. He was the star on the school's basketball team and was always inviting everyone he spoke to any party where they would normally be banned from. He would always get lip from Lauren, but he was such a good person that whenever you told him no, he couldn't figure out why you wouldn't want to go. People had longed learn to just say yes to whatever Austin invited them too and when they didn't show, just tell him that something else had come up.

"Hey Austin." I smiled.

"You guys coming right?" he asked.

"Where?" Katie asked.

"To the party tonight, down by the lake. After the bonfire and once all these kids head to bed, the real fun begins for us counselors."

"Sounds daring." I smiled as he helped us push the log to where the others had now rolled off to the sides.

"It's gonna be awesome!" Austin said, eyes shining. "Just don't tell you know who." He nodded toward Grayson who was busy telling two little boys to stop climbing the trees. One of them stepped down hard on his foot and the boys laughed as they raced off and Grayson hopped on one leg, grumbling in pain.

"Trust me, we won't." I said.

"Awesome, I look forward to seeing you guys! Don't disappoint!" Austin said as he raced off to tell another group of girls about the gathering.

"If only he remembered our names." Katie sighed. "I would be so happy if he just said our names."

"He knows our names!" I smiled.

"He said 'hey guys' and whenever we say his name he smiles at us and refers to us as 'you'." That's the classic I-have-no-idea-who-you-are-but-you're-lucky-I'm-crazy-good-with-faces word." Katie said.

"But I'm the dream crusher." I laughed as we headed to get more logs.

"You still are, Nora, you still are." We both giggled as we continued working, anticipating whatever the night had in store.

…

The party was just starting. The music was loud but not loud enough so that everyone else back at the camp could hear it. Girls and boys were dancing, while others sat around the fire drinking sodas and talking.

"Don't look now but Queen B isn't so happy that we're here." Katie whispered as we made our way to the cooler.

"When has she ever been happy?" I giggled as I picked up two cans and handed Katie one.

"Thanks and beats me." Katie said with a shrug as she took a huge sip of her soda. "As long as she doesn't start with us, we'll be fine."

"Exactly." I said as we took a seat by the fire and watched everyone dance around and laugh.

We sat there, ever so observant for a while, just watching and laughing at whatever we happened to overhear. But then my phone started to vibrate and I pulled it out of my bag.

"What's wrong?" Katie asked as she laughed at Austin who was retelling whoever would listen what happened to him when he learned to swim for the first time. As he waved his arms around wildly, I looked at my screen and made a face.

"Is it your mom?" Katie asked.

"No…it's…weird." I said as I whacked my screen. "My screen's all discombobulated."

"Huh?" Katie asked as she peered over my shoulder at my phone. The screen was all over the place, frozen. Had I dropped it? No. It was a new phone so having an issue like this was big. My heart started tor ace as I imagined what my mother would say about me being irresponsible.

"Weird." Katie mumbled as she started to search her pockets for her phone. At the same time, the music got filled with static and then ceased. There were a few moans as Austin stopped telling his story and started hitting the small portable stereo.

"What's going on here?!" A freaked out voice shouted. We all looked up as Grayson walked into the clearing, face red with rage and eyes scanning our faces. A few shameful kids looked down while the jocks and cheerleaders erupted with laughter, all except for Austin who was mumbling about his "stupid" stereo under his breath.

"Who invited you?" A voice called through the laughter.

"You're all gonna be in so much trouble!" Grayson shouted as he seemed to tremble with rage.

"You gonna rat us out or something?" Connor asked as he stood up, seeming angry.

"Ohhh." His group of friends whispered, sounding like a band of ghosts.

Grayson turned pale and Katie smirked. "He doesn't have the guts."

That's when I heard something over everyone's voices. It was just a sound, like a sharp gasp just a little away. The lake was nearby but earlier the counselors had made sure to put tape around the trees to block it off in case the kids decided it would be fun to go for a night swim. I stood up while Katie started hitting her useless phone against a rock.

"Ugh! My phone's acting up too!" I heard her whine as I furrowed my brow and searched the trees for the sound.

"I have to do what I have to do." Grayson swallowed leaving with an amused look on his face.

"Listen Grayson, it doesn't need to come to that. Just relax for a bit and have some fun." Dustin said as he lifted his hands. "Join us."

"Ugh! This party just got lame." Lauren huffed as I made out something on the lake. She shoulder bumped me as she passed me and then shot me a hard glare as if it was my fault when I had been standing there, and she could have seen me a mile away.

"Ugh this place is just infested with them." Lauren sneered.

"Hey!" Katie said just as I heard that voice again. It wasn't a gasp. It was a scream. That bobbing thing in the lake wasn't just a piece of forest…it was…it was…

I squinted my eyes and hopped onto a rock. It was …a person!

"Omigosh!" I shouted, gaining everyone's attention.

"Everyone get back to your cabins before I run and get the camp head!" Grayson demanded as he stomped his foot.

"Someone's in the water! There's someone in the water!" I screeched as I raced toward the lake.

"Nora!?" Katie screeched as she raced after me. I heard more footsteps follow after the sudden gasps and I heard Grayson start ordering that everyone return back to their rooms as he raced after us.

"Connor!" I heard Lauren shout. When I reached the edge of the lake, there was Jules and her friend Ellie struggling to stay afloat in the water.

"Help!" Jules screamed. "I'm drowning!"

I remembered in the swimming class Jules could barely float. She feared the water and would go completely stiff clinging to whoever was helping her. She couldn't swim. She was going to die.

"Hang on!" I shouted as I reached down to untie my shoes.

"What was that?" Jules screeched. "Ellie was that you?!"

"What!?" Ellie screeched.

"Something touched my feet! Something touched my feet!" Jules screamed growing more hysterical by the second.

"Jules!" Connor yelled.

"The tides pulling them away!" Grayson called. He looked at Katie and I and shook his head. "Weren't you two in charge of putting them to sleep!?"

"We did!" Katie shouted.

I almost had a boot off when the water started getting violent. Waves crashed onto the shore and the girls screamed in unison.

"I want to get out of here!" Jules screamed. "Connor! Help! Something's touching my foot!"

"Shark!" Ellie screeched.

"WHAT!?" Jules shrieked.

"It's too dangerous." Grayson shouted. "Is anybody a strong swimmer?"

"I'm coming!" Connor shouted as he started toward the water.

"Connor!" Lauren called. "It's not safe!"

"I'm not leaving my sister out there!" Connor said.

"You could die though!" Katie said then she turned to look at me. "Nora!?"

"What are you doing?" Grayson yelled as I dove into the water, shoes on and all. So what if they slowed me down? The longer we spent talking about what to do, the faster those two would sink and with Jules clinging to Ellie, they were going to sink for sure.

"NORA!" Katie screamed as I swam with the current. It was strong and not fit for this weather. The way these waves crashed into me, knocking my breathe away, it was like I was in the middle of a hurricane.

"HELP!" Both girls screamed.

I finally reached them and almost instantly, they clung to me.

"Hold on." I breathed as I swam against the current which wasn't easy. I was slow, and each wave felt like I wasn't going anywhere.

"She needs help!" Katie cried.

"Connor!" Lauren shouted.

"What is that?!" I heard Austin shout. I couldn't look back but Ellie and Jules did and the screams that erupted from their lips let me know it wasn't good and I really wasn't swimming fast enough.

"Monster!" Jules screamed.

"Is that…is that…a DRAGON?!" Katie screeched.

"CONNOR!" Lauren screamed. I was sinking and fast. I struggled to hold on until Connor appeared and pulled Jules off my back. Now I only had Ellie who was a lot calmer than the hysterical Jules who hadn't stopped screaming even when she was safe on my back.

I glanced back and my eyes widened. It was a dragon with a golden helmet and a pair of piercing blue eyes. It let out a vicious roar and I screamed as a giant wave crashed into us.

I could hear Katie screaming my name but she sounded far away. I refused to open my eyes. Ellie had a tight grip on me which I deemed as good. Then suddenly, I could hear everyone and they sounded close.

"Nora! Are you okay?!" Katie screamed. I felt her hands on my arms pulling and tugging on me. Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw her standing over me, tears streaming down her face as she looked at the lake and then down at me.

"How did a dragon get in there?!" Austin screeched.

"Who cares! Hurry up! Drag them back to camp! We'll be safe there!" Grayson directed. As Katie pulled me to my feet with the help of someone else, I felt them pulling me along, but I knew it was too late. I caught a sight of the angry dragon in the water, its eyes glowing as it took us in and watched as a huge wave started to form. It was impossible that the lake even still had water, but it was heading toward us, fast.

"Hurry!" Grayson shouted.

"Katie." I coughed.

"C'mon, we'll be alright." She said as she struggled to get me to walk on my own.

"Brace yourselves!" Austin shouted as the wave crashed onto all of us. There were screams and cries for help, but in the end, all I heard was the water and dead silence as everything around me floated away. I was dead. I had to be.


	2. Chapter 2: Brave New World

Episode 2: Brave New World

I woke up and found myself in the middle of what I could only describe as a tropical jungle. Rising to me feet, I was confused as to how I went from a pine forest to a tropical one. What had once been colors of green and brown were bright reds and yellows. All of the colors ranged and mixed beautifully, a truly perfect mixture.

I was aware that nothing made sense and as I dusted the dirt off of me, I wondered if I really had died and this place was supposed to be heaven. Or maybe it was all a dream and I was in a coma.

I shivered at the thoughts just as a terrible crashing sound rang throughout the forest, making me jump. It wasn't just a bunch of trees being knocked over, it was like an entire building had collapsed somewhere nearby. The ground shook and I stumbled around, mystified.

If I was still in the camp forest somehow, a building wasn't for miles, at least not as close as this building sounded. Figuring I really was dead, I started toward the sound, assuming that the worst had passed. As I neared the sounds, they grew and now I could hear screams, dark laughter and just complete chaos. Peering behind a tree, I could see flames and the fallen bodies of kids about my age and younger and also…

"What the heck are those things?" I squinted my eyes and leaned forward. Monsters, that's all I could figure out, that's all I could say because they sure weren't humans.

"Nora!" Katie's frantic voice cried out. I looked over and she came crashing to my feet.

"Katie! Oh my gosh are you okay?" I helped her to her feet and brushed her matted black hair from her porcelain face. "You're covered in dirt! What happened to you? What happened here?"

Katie, her chocolate eyes wide and fearful, gripped my hands and struggled to speak. "I-I-I-I don't kn-kn-know."

"You have to." I said as I stroked her hair. "You're all shaken up."

Katie looked up at the sky and then around. Another crashing sound came from close by and her legs gave out at the sound.

"I'm so scared." She breathed. "I-I came to and I-I-I don't know. It was, it was crazy. Everyone was running and screaming and crying for help." Katie looked at me, tears shining in her eyes.

"I don't understand. What happened?" I gripped her head between my hands, hoping that it could help her focus better if she saw the absolute urgency in my eyes.

"Th-the sky went black. Fire, mass-massive f-f-fireballs came crashing to the ground." Tears shined in her eyes, threatening to fall more now than before.

"It's okay." I said as I pulled my now trembling friend close. "It's over now."

"Looks like we missed one, dear sister." A voice said.

"Two to be exact, dear sister." Another said.

Katie fell rigid in my arms and my grip around her grew tighter. I glared up at the voices, who upon first glance appeared human. But then I looked at their eyes and my eyes locked on the magnum looking guns in one of their hands.

Both girls were twins. Fair-faced with one dressed in a short nun costume and black hair hidden under a cat head cape thing that flared out behind her. The other looked heavenly almost with white hair and a light pink rabbit hat/cape thing. While she too wears a similar dresses to the other girl, her's appears more holy/ in her hands. She holds a gold and very sharp lance. But, their eyes, a pupil less bright blue that matched the cat like mock whiskers on the cat girl's face.

"Who are you two?" I asked. Was this a dream? Was I really dead? If I was dreaming, it was twisted and sick and if I was dead…well that was even worse.

"Noir." The cat girl said with a little bow.

"Blanc." The bunny girl said with a little curtsey.

"Oh God…Oh God…" Katie managed. She was a step away from hyperventilating.

"This won't do." Noir said, shaking her head, a bright smile lighting her face. "LadyDevimon will be very upset if we don't bring her every human."

"What?" I asked.

"Th-th-th…"Katie struggled to speak.

"Sorry!" Blanc said as she started to inch behind her sister. "You have to clock out like everyone else."

"Clock out?" I asked, panic rising in my chest.

"Don't scare them, Blanc." Noir said and then raised her shiny weapons, aiming them at Brooke and I.

"Th-they were th-th-th ones who d-d-did this." Katie gasped. She pulled away from my hold and together we started backing away.

"What? H-how?" I asked her, and then looked at Noir. "Uhh, there's umm, no need for that. Uhh, we-we'll go quietly."

"That's nice." Blanc smiled.

"But I was told to deliver a certain way and that's exactly what I plan on doing." Noir said.

"Hey! Listen!" I took a tentative step forward and Noir's smile tightened.

"Anthony! Prepare." The guns cocked and Brooke let out a choked cry as I froze.

"We can talk about this." I said, determined not to give up. Dream of not, I was not going to die this way.

"Go, Sistermon Noir!" Blanc cheered softly.

"Bless Fire!" Noir shouted as her guns fired a series of bullets. Diamond Storm!" A voice shouted upon the firing, just as I jumped in front of Brooke.

Glass shards rammed into the bullets, cutting them in half and also stopping them from hitting in half and also stopping them from hitting Katie and me.

"Renamon." Noir and Blanc growled in unison.

"Saberdramon!" Blanc called as she lifted the lance. It started to glow as Noir lifted one of her guns to the tree and Katie and me looked at what held their attention.

"Summoning your backup for when I beat your faces into ground?"

The voice was emanating from a fox who stood on its hind legs and was tall and slender. It was golden with white fur on its chest, tip of its bushy tail and hands and claws. Golden fur jutted out from its shoulders. The only clothing on it were purple sleeves that had a yin-yang symbol on each. Purple swirling Cancer-looking symbols were on its thighs. I stared between Noir and Blanc with intimidating ice blue eyes.

"What is that thing?" Katie whispered.

"I must say you're quite annoying." Noir glared. "But I guess that just makes you a minor obstacle. "I'll finish you now."

"I'd like to see you try!" The fox pushed itself off the branch. "Power Paw!" Its fists and feet engulfed in an inferno of blue flames. It grew close to Noir and Blanc and suddenly Blanc jumped in front of Noir.

"Protect Wave!" She stabbed the butt of her lance into the ground and a golden shimmering ball of light surrounded her and Noir as the fox punched and kicked at the barrier with its flaming hands and feet with all its might.

As it delivered its final kick and was jumping back, Blanc lifted her lance from the ground and Noir readied her gun.

"Anthony! Mickey Bullet!" She fired wildly. Katie and I screamed and dove for cover while the fox struggled to dodge the attack.

"Divine Pierce!" Blanc appeared out of nowhere and tried to jab the fox in the chest. She missed but not before forcing the fox to the ground.

"Anthony!" Noir called as she lifted both guns. "Bless Fire!" She fired straight onto the fox and it caught it directly. A cloud of dust surrounded the fox and then Noir and Blanc turned to face Katie and me.

"Is she okay?" Katie struggled to get a good view of the fox.

The dust was starting to clear and I could see the fox, a defeated heap on the ground.

"Run!" A harsh voice commanded. Above a terrible roar sounded and Katie screamed.

"They're back!" She yelled. "They're back!"

"If you stay still, you won't have to go down like them." Noir smiled.

"Bless…" Noir started.

I grabbed Katie's hand, my mind and heart racing as the massive dark shadows above flew overhead, getting closer and closer as well as bigger and bigger.

"Fire!" Noir shouted. Her guns started firing and I pulled Katie into the dense forest.

Racing through the trees as the swarming shadows above, made Katie quake with more fear than before.

"Where are we running to?" Katie struggled. "Their huge, Kat. They'll catch us."

"We'll get away. We have to." I promised.

"Mach Shadow!" A violent gust of wind came at us from the back forcing us off our feet. Screaming, we flew up, shooting forward into the trees. The winds were so powerful I could barely keep my eyes open and when I finally landed, I found that I had lost hold Katie.

Coughing as well as struggling to stop my dizziness, I looked to my sides.

"Katie?" It came out like a whisper. I lowered my face onto the cool ground and shut my eyes as the black shadows swarmed above. A violent roar, filled the air.

I still wasn't sure if anything was real or if I was dead or not, but once again I was filled with a feeling that screamed I wouldn't be defeated this way.

I slowly rose to my feet, my knees shaking. "Nora, run!" Katie's frantic whisper called from somewhere on my left.

"Night Arrow!" A powerful and loud voice roared from above.

"Nora!" Katie screamed.

I looked up to see a glowing green arrow coming toward me. But, I couldn't move. The arrow was getting closer and all I could do was close my eyes.

"NORA!" Katie screams.

Something rammed into me and we hit the ground. The arrow hit the ground where I had been standing just moments before and as soon as it came crashing to the ground it moved the Earth and picked up dirt as well.

I was lifted again and this time, the person carrying me landed on the far left, where Katie could be seen peeking out from under the bush and raced into my arms, hugging me tightly.

"Thank God you're alright!" Katie said and then released me to run to my savior who turned out to be…the fox.

It stared down at an overly grateful Katie. "Thank you so much for saving my friend!" She smiled through tears. She turned back and gave my arm a squeeze.

"Why didn't you move?" she whispered.

"If I were you humans, I'd get moving." The fox said. "Maybe next time I won't be there to push you out of the way."

"RENAMON!" A vicious cry filled the forest. We all looked up and saw massive burning black bird. The size of a plane, maybe bigger. It fit perfectly into the clearing, but not enough to turn, but good enough to ram right into us.

"What is that? A bird?" I asked, still hung up on its size.

"Saberdramon." The fox said as it clenched its fists.

"That's also what attacked everyone back there." Katie said as she cowered behind me. "But there were more than just that one."

"There's three." The fox added coldly. "Now run."

"You can't possibly take that thing." I said, unable to stop myself. "That's just stupid not to forget complete suicide."

Of course the look I got from the look the fox made my stomach churn, but I stood by my words and tried to still appear as confident as I could, even though I was sure it had faltered slightly.

"I-I-I'm j-just saying you uhh, umm, lost back there." I mumbled and then looked away. "Sorry."

"Renamon don't get involved with those humans." Noir said. "You know they're up to no good,"

"We'll delete you, Renamon." Blanc called. "Let Saberdramon take those two humans."

The fox, or Renamon was it, looked down at Katie and me.

"Run." It said.

Katiee grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the jungle. As we ran a roar filled the area, shaking the leaves from the trees.

I pulled my hand free from Katie and we stopped running.

"What?" She asked.

"We can't leave…it." I said.

She shook her head. "Well what are we supposed to do? We have the gun-wielding cat lady, the spear-wielding bunny and flaming tractor-trailer sized bird are intimidating enough. They won't hesitate to kill us plus you almost died."

"I know but, that fox, uhh, uhh, Renamon. She doesn't stand a chance you know that! I said. She barely survived the first attack."

"Ugh! Nor-" Brooke began.

"We can't." I said. "We can't do much, but we can try."

"Mach Shadow!" A powerful voice yelled. We looked to where we had come running from and I could make out a black flaming mass with piercing gold eyes coming toward us. Trees were snapping and spiraling into the darkness and I held my breath. We couldn't dodge it, the attack was too massive.

When it drew closer, a powerful blast of wind slammed into Katie and me, knocking the air right out us. We went flying back, our screams silenced by the wind. When it was over, we had come down on the ground and Katie lay beside me, clutching her left ankle.

"You okay?" I was dizzy, but seeing my best friend in pain made my heart tighten. I raced to her side and patted her shoulder.

"I came down on my ankle wrong. I think I sprained it." She groaned. "Maybe worse."

"Damn, that's not good." I moved her hand a little and saw a purplish bruise forming around her ankle.

"Can you walk?" I asked.

"Maybe." Katie said, tears glistening in her eyes. "It hurts a lot."

"You two didn't get far enough."

Katie and I looked back and saw Renamon limping toward us.

"You're alive." I said as I slid Katie's arm around my neck and placed a hand on her side.

"Was I supposed to be dead?" She was gripping her right shoulder.

"But you're badly injured." Katie observed. "You won't be alive for long if you keep going the way you are."

"Observant, aren't you?" Renamon said, feigning joy and heavily too.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"They'll be here." Renamon said and glanced up at the tree tops. "Soon."

"We have to hide." Katie said.

"They'll find us." I said.

"Trailmon." Renamon's ears perked up.

"What?" Katie asked. "What's a Trailmon?"

"The cave!" Renamon nodded toward a small cave that had train tracks shooting out of its mouth.

"Why in there?" Katie asked.

"The Trailmon can us out of here." Renamon said. "And that track heads to Infinity Mountain."

"Why does that not sound like a place on the camp?" Katie asked, skeptical.

"We need to move." Renamon said and started to walk.

"She can't. Her ankle is bad." I said.

Renamon glared at Katie. "Fine!" Walking toward us, she knelt down in front of her. "Get on my back."

I released Katie and wrapped my arms and legs around Renamon. Katie hobbled around and Renamon lifted her off her feet as she stood up. Once we were all set, Renamon started running.

We were shooting forward and I was almost willing to bet that Renamon's feet weren't even touching the ground. We reached the cave just as three enflamed black birds flew out of the forest. We turned into the cave and came face to face with a bullet-shaped train. Renamon practically shoved Katie and I into the train and once we were in the doors slammed shut and the train pushed forward.

"Get down! Under the seats!" Renamon commanded harshly.

Katie and I slid under the upholstered seats and covered our heads. The train picked up more and more speed while Brooke and I tried our best to stay calm. Would they find us? What would happen once they captured us?

Something told me that getting caught by Noir, Blanc, or those Saberdramon wasn't going to be a walk in the park or the nicest experience.

"Okay." Renamon said. She stood up after having been the one crouching under the table by the window. Katie moaned as she struggled to crawl out from under the seat. I quickly rushed to her side and helped her onto the seat.

"You're friend's hurt." Renamon nodded.

"So are you." I grunted and from the corner of my eye saw her place a hand over her wounded shoulder.

Clenching her teeth and starting to sweat, Katie said: "What's stopping them from hitting the train?"

"Nothing." Renamon's answered.

My body grew tense.

"But they won't or maybe they're following close by, waiting for this Trailmon to stop." Renamon explained. "But as far as shooting shadows and arrows at us, they would never hurt their beloved Trailmon."

"Why not? I asked.

"Because they use them. It's part of the deal." Renamon explained coolly as she stretched out on the seat she had claimed.

"Deal?" I repeated.

"I think the better question here is where are we because last I checked massive birds in flames and giant talking foxes don't exist in our world, unless you're on drugs and I'm as clean as can be." Katie said.

"Quite a mouthful." Renamon said.

"Answer us." I demanded.

Renamon sighed and brought her gaze out the window. "Digital World."

"What?" Katie asked. "The hell is that?"

"It's where we are. Think of it as an alternate universe."

"Alternate universe?" I asked, my voice weak, the idea mind-blowing. This was stuff you heard about in sci-fi movies.

"How did we get here?" Katie asked.

Renamon shrugged and then flinched, gripping her shoulder. "Beats me. It usually would happen through portals that opened in your world at random but it would only take in a Chosen."

"Chosen?" I asked, but it was ignored.

"Then it became transportation by Trailmon. They would come to the Human World and take kids here." Renamon said.

"How is it done now?" Katie asked.

"Mixture of both." Renamon answered.

"Why kids?" Katie asked.

"That's just how it is. I'm not talking four year olds, though I've seen it too, but the latest Chosen's are in their early teens." Renamon said.

"Why are they Chosen?" I asked.

"To save us."

"From what?"

"Any evil. Evil that can and has easily slipped into your world that was started in ours. The Chosen stop the evil in its tracks and sometimes their battle's spill out into your world."

"Why haven't we heard about that? Plane-sized and talking beasts would be front-page news." Katie said.

"That's because your government covers it up." Renamon explained. "There's a specific organization that works with this world and is always watching what might pop up. If something gets through, this agency deploys what I assume to be specially placed Chosen to destroy it."

"She sounds like a twisted History channel government conspiracy." Katie said to me.

"But there were a lot of kids back there. All of them were Chosen's too?" I asked.

Renamon's piercing eyes looked into mine. "As of thirsty minutes ago the Green Terminal was in the Light Zone and in a matter of seconds it was wiped off the face of this planet. Any and all survivors who were not deleted are being taken to LadyDevimon's lair where they will be held prisoner. No one knows what happens to humans, but I can tell you that it's not good."

Swinging her feet to the ground, her stare seemed to grow colder. "Truth is it is very likely those kids are Chosens which would mean LadyDevimon's going the extra mile by hunting them all down, but she's not that smart. My bet is that she's sucking up as many kids as possible in hopes of capturing all of the Chosens."

"Why?" Brooke asked.

"Because she's a Darkness General and that's what she does. With all the children in the world in her prison, no Chosens can come forward to save the day." Renamon paused.

"By taking kids, she's already broken that treaty with that group in your world, but with no Chosen's in your world and her control of the portals, she can put an army together and destroy your world without thinking twice about it, and there will be nothing you can do about it." Renamon said.

"But that government thing." Katie interjected.

"Is useless when one has the power to open thousands of portals in a matter of seconds. Renamon finished.

Silence.

Katie seemed stunned, fearful as she placed her head on the seat. All I could do was sit on the floor as all this processed.

"But how do the humans stop them?" I asked.

"They partner with a digimon." Renamon said.

"Which is?" Katie asked.

"Me, Saberdramon, Blanc, Noir. Basically any creature that isn't human, which is just about every creature in this world." Renamon explained.

Katie groaned and Renamon looked at her.

"You should get that ankle checked." She said, nodding toward the bruised flesh.

"I'd love to, but something tells me that doctors don't exist here." Katie said.

"I know someone." Renamon said.

"Why are you helping us?" I asked.

Renamon gave me a side look. "You two were in my way and in the middle of all my fights."

"How flattering." Katie added, sarcastically.

"Thank you." I said, with a smile.

Renamon gave no response and instead turned her head sourly away. "Once we get that leg of yours fixed up I can ask about how you can get back to your world."

"What are the odds?" I asked.

"You said that agency doesn't control these portal things. That Lady-whatever does, right?" Katie asked.

"LadyDevimon, and yes and because of that, your chances are slimmer. Unless those Chosens show their faces soon, you could both be here for a while." Renamon said solemnly.

"We don't have that time!" Katie gasped. "My mom will kill me."

I placed a hand over hers and squeezed. "We'll get home, you'll see."

"I know someone who might know of a way, but it will take some time to reach them." Renamon said.

"That's fine." I said before Katie could comment. "We have one week of camp left back home, it should be enough, right?"

"They'll call our parents-" Katie panicked.

"Yeah but not before they search the forest and that gives us another week." I explained. "By that time all of this could be over."

Katie bit her bottom lip and then lightly traced her thumb across her bruised ankle as she thought about my words.

"So we'll be fine." I assured her. "We'll be back in no time."


	3. Chapter 3:Enter the Wise Aegiomon

Episode 3: Enter the Wise Aegiomon!

When the Trailmon finally wheeled to a stop, we got off and found ourselves at the base of a massive mountain that had a path that wrapped itself all around it.

"That doesn't look safe." Katie managed. "Or like something I can make it up."

"It looks like something neither of us can make it up." I said and glanced back at Renamon. "Even you."

Renamon started walking to the path and after exchanging a look with each other, Katie and I struggled after her.

"We can't make it you know." Katie called. "Not that she's listening…"

"There's a friend of mine at the base of the mountain." Renamon said. "Once we're healed, we can make the climb with no problem at all."

"Not before passing out." Katie added and I shook my head.

"Too late to turn back now."

"It's not like we could if we wanted to." Katie grunted. "Where do you see a building for miles?"

I looked around and she was right. If that burned down village had been in the middle of nowhere, this place was too, maybe worse. All I could see were trees.

"Cutemon." Renamon called. "Come here."

There was a rustling in the trees on the right and when Katie and I turned, out darted a pink creature with massive pink ears and a long, red scarf tied around its neck. It sailed right toward Renamon, clinging to the fur on Renamon's chest. Its eyes sparkled as it stared up at her, clearly excited to see her.

"Renamon! You're back!" It cheered.

"Does that thing have headphones on?" Katie whispered to me and I watched as the creature's ears twitched and it fixed a pair of beady black eyes on us.

"Humans?!" It slipped off of Renamon and cowered behind her legs, clutching onto Renamon's fluffy tail. "Wha-what are they doing here?!"

"Heal them." Renamon directed. "The one that's crouched over, her leg needs to be healed."

The bunny looked up at Renamon. "We could get in trouble. How could you-how could you bring **them** here?"

Renamon looked away and then the bunny's eyes widened as it saw the wound on her shoulder for the first time.

"What happened to you?!" it exclaimed.

"I think its ear muffs." I said as I eased Katie to the ground.

"Heal them, Cutemon. I'm on a tight schedule." Renamon said, sounding tired.

The bunny's brow furrowed. "I'll heal you first."

"Nora…it has little red booties." Katie whisper-squealed.

I smiled as I looked. She was right. Tiny little booties were on its feet and it climbed onto Renamon's bad shoulder.

"It must not be very heavy either." I observed.

It extended its little hands and almost instantly a green ball of energy appeared. It lowered the ball directly onto Renamon's shoulder and Katie and I watched, with open mouths as Renamon's wound started to heal.

"No way." We whispered. Once Renamon was healed, Cutemon hopped off and looked at us. Taking tentative steps toward us, clearly a little fearful of us, by the time it reached us, it was sweating.

"Let me see." It said, trying to suck up as much courage as it could.

Katie removed her hands from her wounded ankle and Cutemon swallowed. It extended its hands and touched Katie's ankle and Katie bit down on her lip. The green ball of energy appeared upon Cutemon's touch and within seconds, Katie's ankle was as good as new.

"Thanks." Katie said as she touched her healed ankle and Cutemon looked up at me.

"Renamon, do I have to heal that one too?" Its voice was high pitched, like a little kid's but I assumed from the way it carried itself, that it had to be a boy. He looked voter his shoulder at Renamon who had been watching closely.

"Yes." Renamon said.

Cutemon sighed and then looked at me. "Don't move."

"I'm not injur-" Cutemon jumped on me then, it's movements swift as it made its way to my shoulder and touched my left cheek. It stung.

Katie looked at me. "How did you not feel that?"

"I guess I just…I don't know."

"Done." Cutemon said a few moments later and jumped off of me. He turned to look back at Renamon. "There's a few scratches here and there but nothing as serious as what I healed."

Renamon nodded. "Thank you."

Cutemon looked back at us. "What's the plan for those two? Why did you bring them here? They're Darkness bait."

"Darkness?" I repeated as Katie rose to her feet.

"Where's Aegiomon?" Renamon asked.

"What!? No! No Renamon! Leave him out of this!" Cutemon said, as it jumped in front of Renamon's path. "Don't do this."

Renamon glanced down at Cutemon, but stepped over him.

"Renamon!" Cutemon whined.

"These humans wish to go home." Renamon said as she started up the path and then shot Katie and me a look. "Follow."

We nodded in response and headed up the mountain path while Cutemon and Renamon, well mainly Cutemon, bickered.

"I healed them so send them on their way! Make sure they get as far from here, from us as possible!" Cutemon said. "How did you get that wound anyway? Were you fighting again? Is that where you picked those two up? In a fight against the Darkness again? What are you trying to prove, Renamon?"

I looked at Katie. She seemed worried as she watched Cutemon speak and she had good reason. It was clear that this bouncing bunny knew we were trouble and that it was a waste to save us. When he spoke of this "Darkness" thing, it was also clear that he was scared of them. But, Renamon just kept on walking, her eyes trained straight ahead. I wondered if she was even paying attention to a word that left Cutemon's mouth.

"It's reckless is what it is." Cutemon said. "What you're doing is completely reckless. You're not even thinking of the safety of Infinity Mountain."

"It's just a pile of rocks anyway." Renamon grumbled.

"A pile of rocks!? Are you crazy! It's the highest point in the Digital World and Aegiomon has fought long and hard to keep it free of the Darkness! Here you come with two humans and in a matter of minutes the Darkness could appear!"

Renamon gave no response, she just kept walking. Cutemon continued to babble, still pleading that Renamon just push us off the mountain. We had walked considerable for a few minutes and just as Katie and I were ready to give up, sweat pouring down our faces as the hot sun set behind us, Renamon stopped walking. The path we had been climbing had been pretty narrow, but where we stood now, there was a small cave built into the mountain. Out front there were two vases with wildflowers bursting from the soil. A small mat in front of the cave read welcome and Katie and I exchanged a look.

"Aegiomon!" Renamon called into the cave.

"This is wild." Katie whispered. "I don't know what's going on here."

"Me either. I'm just…confused really."

"What's this Darkness thing they're talking about?" Katie asked.

"I think it relates to that LadyDevimon Renamon mentioned earlier."

Katie shivered. "That means it relates to that bird thing and those freaky girls."

I nodded and we turned to fix out gaze on the mouth of the cave where a figure had appeared. Katie covered her mouth while my eyes widened.

From the waist up it was clearly a boy with ancient red markings on his chest and forearms. There was even something scribbled under his left eye. He had horns atop his head, with a big red scarf around his neck that could easily hide everything but his eyes if he wanted to. He wore a raggedy black vest that ended above his stomach. His hands were huge, bigger than a human's hands and shielded with white gloves. The rest of him…was covered in hair. He was…like a little boy fused with a goat. Armor covered his thighs and he had red fabric tied around his ankles.

"What…the hell…is that?" Katie swallowed.

"Aegiomon!" Cutemon said as he raced to new creature's side. "I begged her to leave them behind, but Renamon, she doesn't listen!"

The creature, Aegiomon looked Katie and I over before looking at Renamon.

"Humans?" He said, his voice surprisingly deep for someone of his size and appearance.

Renamon nodded.

"Why did you bring them here?"

"They want to go back to their world."

Aegiomon looked at Katie and I again. "What are your names?"

"Nora." I said as I cleared my throat and then touched Katie's arm. "And this is my friend, Katie."

Aegiomon looked up at the sky and then back at all of us. "Come inside."

"Aegio-" Cutemon began but after getting a look from the goat-kid, he could only swallow his words.

With Aegiomon's invitation, we followed them all inside the cave and Katie clung to me. As we walked in deeper, I made out candlelight and as we stepped into the living space, it was a small and cozy room. Rugs covered every piece of ground and a small fire that also served as a stove was busy warming up a pot of something. A small radio was playing on the far end of the room and Aegiomon walked over to the pot.

Cutemon sat the farthest away from us, clearly sour from not being taken serious, but no one really seemed to pay him much mind.

"It's been years since I've laid eyes on a human." Aegiomon said as he stirred the pot. He glanced back at Katie and me. "Please, make yourselves comfortable."

"Thank you." I said as I slowly sat down on the rug and Katie quickly followed suit. Renamon leaned against the wall and closed her eyes and Cutemon…was still pouting in a corner.

"Renamon, where did you go?" Aegiomon called.

"Green Terminal." Renamon answered.

"Why were you there?" Aegiomon asked, though it became apparent that the answer didn't matter because he kept speaking. "You found these two humans there?"

"Yes."

"And what happened?"

"Green Terminal is no more."

Silence. Cutemon looked over from his corner and drew closer and closer near us.

"No…" Cutemon looked over at Aegiomon who just kept stirring.

"Th-that m-means…" Cutemon hugged itself and started to tremble. "They're coming."

Aegiomon stopped stirring and knelt down beside Cutemon. He placed a finger on his back and Cutemon turned to face him.

"Fear not, my friend." Aegiomon said. "Whatever happens, will happen."

"Since we were going to be destroyed anyway, I figured taking these humans wouldn't be much of an issue." Renamon sighed.

"We will not be destroyed, Renamon." Aegiomon said.

Katie looked back at Renamon. "You said you were going to help us get home."

"Yes, I can point you in the direction and you'll be on your own." Renamon said, her eyes opening to reveal nothing but ice behind them.

Katie looked away, unable to take the cold and looked at me.

"I'm just…a little confused…with all of this."

Aegiomon looked at me. "Confused."

"This, Darkness…what is it?" I asked.

Aegiomon nodded and sat down beside Cutemon. "The Darkness came a few months ago, starting just west of here. It's a dark fog, that covers you in darkness before they arrive."

"They?" Katie asked.

"They are called Darkness digimon, controlled by Darkness Generals. They've been taking up areas one by one, destroying everything in their path and according to Renamon, Infinity Mountain is next." Aegiomon explained. "When that happens...I fear for this mountain. It cannot stand another attack."

"So it's been attacked before?" I asked.

"Yes, before the Darkness came, Infinity Mountain was a place where strong digimon called their home. It was a peaceful place, but as you can see there are hardly any digimon in the area. Because this area has such good value, the Darkness wants it. The high vantage point atop this mountain can allow them to oversee all their areas and also the ones they have yet to capture." Aegiomon said.

"What happened to all the other digimon?" Katie asked.

"The Darkness came and having constant battles here that shook the mountain. The other digimon…many of them perished." Aegiomon shook his head. "Now there are no digimon left to fight and any other digimon will surely run when they see the Darkness coming. No one will fight."

"So this place is going to be taken?" Katie asked. "When?"

"Tomorrow…the day after, next week, they can do it whenever they want, when we least expect it." Aegiomon said.

"We need to run right now!" Cutemon said, tears shining in its eyes. "If we stay here any longer, we're as good as dead."

Aegiomon looked down at him. "Not tonight, Cutemon."

"But-"

"You will need all the rest you can get."

"But-" Cutemon continued.

"No more buts." Renamon snapped.

Cutemon fell silent and Aegiomon patted his head lightly.

"It will be alright, my friend." He looked at Katie and me. "Renamon says you want to go home."

I nodded.

"I know of someone who can help, but it will take some time to get to them." Aegiomon said. "Of course there's also no way of knowing if the Darkness has taken over the region."

"Anything will help at this point." I said before Katie could say something.

Aegiomon nodded. "In the Ice region, there is a digimon, Ophanimon. She is all powerful, all knowing. She used to rule the Digital World before the Darkness forced her into hiding. There is a Trailmon not too far from here, across the bridge that can take you to Floramon Village and from there…" He rose to his feet and went back to the pot.

"You'll have to walk." He finished. "Cutemon, Renamon. Please, bring out the table and the bowls from the cabinet. You must all be hungry."

"Hungry?" Katie touched her stomach and it growled. Before I could even touch mine, it started to growl to, in a contest with Katie's.

"I'll get the table." Renamon said.

Cutemon hesitated but went off in the opposite direction. "I got the plates."

Minutes later, the table was rolled out and we all kneeled before it. Aegiomon lifted the pot off the stove and placed it on top of the table while Cutemon finished setting up the plates and spoons.

"It's a stew." Aegiomon said as he got the serving spoon. "It's a good thing that I made extra."

"You always make extra." Cutemon grumbled. He was holding his face in his tiny hands, upset.

"That is true." Aegiomon smiled softly. "We always seem to have someone passing through." He served Katie and I first and then reached for Renamon's bowl, but Renamon stood up.

"Something wrong?" Aegiomon asked.

"I'm not hungry." Renamon said as she walked off toward the entrance of the cave.

Cutemon sucked in a cheek and Aegiomon set down Renamon's bowl. He poured some in Cutemon's bowl and then in his own. As he kneeled down, he was still smiling.

"She'll eat later." He assured us.

Katie and me smiled back at him and then started eating. At the first bite, my eyes widened.

"This is…" Katie looked down at the soup.

"This is…amazing." I finished as I looked at Aegiomon.

"It's the greatest thing I've ever tasted." Katie added.

Aegiomon chuckled. "You are too kind. Please eat as much as you need. Build up your strength."

Katie and I nodded eagerly, not holding back as we scarfed down the stew. We helped ourselves to seconds too before we noticed the mood at the table wasn't the greatest.

Cutemon was eating his soup, but still seemed upset while Aegiomon ate too, but it was clear his mind was somewhere else.

"So these Chosen kids, Renamon said LadyDevimon is trying to capture all the kids in our world so she can stop them from showing." I said through chews.

Aegiomon nodded. "Yes that seems to be what she's doing."

"But what about the other Chosen kids, the one already Chosen?" I asked. "Couldn't they help?"

"It is not their place, though I'm sure they will come and try. However, I'm not too sure if they have the power to do so. Every Chosen has a time and place. They can help each other, but their strength seems to decrease whenever a new Chosen appears. It's not much, but even the smallest amount can make a big difference." Aegiomon explained.

"So either way, this place is screwed." Katie said.

"Sorry to be so blunt." She laughed nervously and I shook my head.

"It's not only our world, you know." Cutemon said as he sipped the rest of his soup from his tiny bowl that was clearly made just for him.

"Yeah, Renamon mentioned that you guys can cross over into our world too." I said.

Aegiomon nodded.

"It's terrible, what's happening here. I wish there was some way we could help." I said.

"There isn't." Cutemon said. "Unless you're Chosen."

Aegiomon shook his head. "It's much appreciated, you're offering, but Cutemon is right. There is nothing you two can do to help us. If you were Chosen we could find your partners and you could probably fight to protect Infinity Mountain."

"But they're not." Cutemon grumbled. "Which is why we have to leave." He threw down his bowl and started toward the mouth of the cave, disappearing in the darkness.

***Don't forget to Review please! And of course Enjoy!***


	4. Chapter4:The Fight for Infinity Mountain

Episode 4: The Fight for Infinity Mountain Begins!

"Attitude." Katie said once Cutemon was gone.

"He is so young." Aegiomon said. "All Cutemon has ever known is the Darkness. He complains about Renamon saving you when she even saved him."

"From the Darkness?" I asked.

Aegiomon nodded. "Yes. They lived in the same village and when it was under attack by the Darkness, everything was nearly destroyed. They witnessed many of their friends…" Aegiomon shook his head. "It was devastating and the two of them barely managed to escape. The event seems to have had an effect on Cutemon. All he can remember is that the Darkness digimon kept mumbling about a human in the area. He believes his village was destroyed for that one human which is why he's so wary about you two."

"But Renamon's not like that." I said.

Aegiomon nodded. "Renamon grew up hearing the stories of the Chosen and she firmly believes that any human she meets could be them. She's never brought any home before, but LadyDevimon's henchmen know her well. She is always tracking their latest attack zones and is always present when the attack begins. She fights, struggling to protect as many digimon and humans she can. Of course she hasn't been very successful, but you two, you're the first she's ever brought back."

I nodded.

"So she thinks we're Chosen?" Katie asked.

"She'll protect you two till the death because of it." Aegiomon said.

Katie looked at me and I looked down at my bowl of stew. They had both been through so much. Renamon was cold on the outside, intimidating and angry, but on the inside, the hope she had in all of us humans, in her world being saved one day…it was nice. Cutemon was all tough on the outside, but his worries were in a good place, logical. He talked all this talk, but he knew full well that he'd never be able to live without Renamon or even Aegiomon.

"What's your story, Aegiomon?" Katie asked.

Aegiomon straightened. "I was born here, in Infinity Mountain. I owned a small shop near the base of the mountain, the first shop other digimon would visit. It was a small tea shop and it had good business. But when the Darkness appeared, less and less digimon came through. The mountain itself seemed to grow lonelier and I was forced to close up my shop, stuff it with boulders in hopes of one day being able to uncover it and start my business again. Then the first attack happened. Three Saberdramon swooped down and though many lost their lives, we managed to hold strong. Then the second attack and that was when Renamon and Cutemon appeared. They were badly hurt, in need of attention and care and I nursed them both back to health. By the third strike, the mountain was in serious shape. But by the third, Renamon jumped in, it gave a lot of digimon hope and strength. We survived once again, but when the fourth happened…all our fighters…we barely survived."

"You're the only ones living here?" Katie asked.

Aegiomon nodded. "The last survivors."

"So when they come this time…" I swallowed.

"It's over." Katie finished.

Aegiomon nodded. "But you two will not be here and I'll be sure to send Renamon and Cutemon with you, to keep you company and protect you both on your journey."

"Huh?" Katie asked, nearly choking on her soup.

"What about you?" I asked.

Aegiomon smiled. "I'm going to stay here."

"That's suicide." Katie said, always the blunt one.

Aegiomon shrugged. "Maybe. But this place, this mountain, it's my home. I will stay and protect it till the end."

"Aegiomon-" That's when I saw it, the iron resolve in his eyes. He was serious. He wasn't going anywhere, he was really going to stay and take on those Saberdramon, Blanc, Noir and whatever other digimon they brought with them.

"I have a friend, who probably lives across the bridge, well I'm not sure if he lives there anymore, but he is strong as well. If anyone can get you to the Ice Area, I trust that he can." Aegiomon said. "He owes me a debt, and tell him that this is how he can repay it."

"Aegiomon, you just can't expect us to let you go through with this." Katie said. "You mean so much to Renamon and Cutemon and-"

"Loss is nothing new to them, my friend. For Renamon that stands true and as for Cutemon, he has Renamon at the end of the day, he will be fine." Aegiomon said. "What matters now is that we protect you both."

"Aegiomon-" Katie said.

"They know that you're doing this. They know you're going to fight, well Renamon does." I realized.

Aegiomon looked down. "My friends name is Dobermon. Renamon and Cutemon will recognize him. He could be anywhere between here or Floramon village, so be sure to ask for him."

We fell silent.

"I do not know if you two are Chosen, but I can say that I see something in both of you. You're not like other humans, you two…you two will fight even if you are not Chosen. It is because of that, that I am honored to have met you both." Aegiomon stood up. "I will prepare your beds."

He left us at the table and moments later I stood up. Katie looked up at me.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"To see Renamon." I said and then looked down at the pot. I grabbed Renamon's bowl and poured some stew inside. I stepped over the table and headed out. I spotted Renamon sitting at the center, her arms crossed and spotted Cutemon completely knocked out on the side, his scarf wrapped around him.

"Here." I said as I sat down beside her, offering her the stew.

Renamon glanced down at me and then at the bowl. "I'm not hungry."

I set the bowl down in front of her. "Yeah, well if you're gonna keep watch all night, I'm sure you'll need something to snack on."

I looked up at the bright moon high in the sky where the stars twinkled all around it. It was peaceful, I realized, the calm before the storm.

"Aegiomon is going to fight." I said. "But you know that."

Renamon said nothing.

"I know you're not leaving until you help out too." I said. "Or do as much as you can."

Still nothing and I hugged my knees to my chest. "We'll help out too, anything we can do, we'll do."

Renamon looked at me and I smiled up at her.

"Your friend-"

'Who Katie? She owes me! The only reason I went to summer camp was so that she wouldn't go alone. Besides, she might talk a lot, but the truth is, if I do something, she'll do it too." I said.

Silence once again until, Renamon reached for the bowl. "Thank you."

…

I woke to the sound of Cutemon breathing heavily. I saw him, his tiny hands gripping his scarf. His eyes were wide as he stared off into the distance.

I rolled onto my side and found that I was still lying at the mouth of the cave. Behind me Katie and Aegiomon emerged. Renamon stood outside, staring off into the distance where a dark cloud was rolling in.

"Looks like an incoming store." Katie observed.

"But it's not." Aegiomon said. "They're here."

"What's the plan?" Katie asked.

"We-we can't f-fight them." Cutemon shivered.

"We're going to try." Renamon said. "We have to."

"If things get bad, I'll distract them." Aegiomon said. "You four make a run for the bridge." He extended a hand to Renamon. "And don't look back."

"Aegiomon! There's still time! We can run! We can run!" Cutemon sniffed, tears streaming down his little face.

"We won't get far unless we slow them down." Aegiomon said. "And you all won't let me distract them alone."

"We're taking some of them down before we go." Renamon said. "I call that fair."

"But like, what's the plan?" Katie asked. "We need some sort of battle plan."

"Attack." Renamon said. "Don't hold back."

"You all have super powers and Nora and I…we have…we have…" Katie looked at me. "Nothing."

I looked down at my feet and picked up a rock. "We have rocks."

"What good will that do?" Katie asked.

"If we can get close enough to Noir and Blanc we can knock them out. Renamon and Aegiomon can take them then." I said.

Katie nodded. "How will we get close enough to do that?"

"You have a better aim than me. I'll distract them both and you hit them." I smiled and looked at Aegiomon.

"With their two leaders down, there's not much their henchmen can do. They'll be walking targets and who knows maybe those Saberdramon will retreat." I smiled.

"That could buy us time, Aegiomon. Those Saberdramon will go and report what happened and by then Ophanimon might give us the power to come back and put up a real fight by the time they return." Renamon said.

"It's a chance, but I think we can do it." I smiled.

Cutemon sniffed as Aegiomon nodded. "It's a risk, a huge one. It's crazy enough that it just might work." Aegiomon smiled. "We'll do it."

"I want to help." Cutemon sniffed as he brushed away his tears.

I smiled down at him. "Of course you can. You can help me distract those twins while Katie gets a good aim."

"I guess all those times my dad taught me all the weak points in the brain are starting to come in handy, huh?" Katie asked.

"Everyone hide and wait for my signal." Aegiomon said.

I nodded as Renamon disappeared and Katie, Cutemon and I ran back inside the cave, hiding behind the big rocks.

"You think we can win?" Cutemon asked.

I looked down and found that he was hiding with me, staring at me with his small eyes. He was searching for hope, all he needed was a simple yes. I smiled.

"I think we can buy us some time like Renamon said. Then we'll come back with a huge army and win." I winked.

"That cloud's getting closer!" Katie whispered. "I can see them!"

I peeked over the rock and found that she was right. Leading the pack were the three Saberdramon, all equally gruesome and riding two of them were Noir and Blanc.

I felt my hands ball into tight fists. We had to win. We had to do this. Slowing them down would not only help us, but it would also help all the other digimon. Aegiomon would have a few more days with Infinity Mountain and we would go around spreading word about how the darkness was stopped in its. Hope would be restored throughout the world and that…that was all they needed. I looked down at Cutemon.

He was scared, it shined in his eyes, but he was also pumped, ready for anything, ready to give it his all. I could imagine Renamon, wherever she was, probably antsy as she stared at the incoming army. She was ready to give it her all. Glancing at Katie, I saw that she too was scared, but she knew better than me that helping the creatures that were giving it their all, risking everything to protect and help us, even save us, was the least we could.

All we can do is try, I thought and found satisfaction in that.

"Aegiomon!" Blanc called.

"We'll make this short." Noir called.

"Where are they?" Blanc asked.

"Where are the humans and that wretched Renamon?"

"Humans?" Aegiomon said, standing strong at the mouth of the cave. "I know of no such humans here."

Noir's Saberdramon let out a vicious roar that was enough to make me shiver.

"You know we'll solve two problems at once, I suppose." Noir said.

"That's right sister, dear." Blanc smiled. "We needed to claim Infinity Mountain anyway."

"And once we're done destroying you and your band of misfits, we can capture those pesky humans and be rewarded by LadyDevimon herself." Noir grinned.

"I won't let you take my home." Aegiomon called.

"We know." Blanc said.

"We've heard you a million times."

"Don't worry, we'll make it quick."

"We'll take it right from under you!" Noir jumped off of her Saberdramon and started laughing. "Anthony!" Her arms extended as she dived and her pistols prepared themselves to fire.

Aegiomon balled his hands into tight fists. "Aegiomon digivolve to…"

"What? Digivolve?" Katie whispered.

"Shh!" I said as a bright light filled the cave.

When the light faded a different digimon stood in Aegiomon's place and it covered its face as Noir fired.

"Bless Fire!" She shouted as her guns fired, a direct hit.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Aegiomon's Ultimate form, Aegiochusmon." Cutemon said. "Now the fight really begins."

"That…that doesn't look anything like Aegiomon." Katie whispered, her eyes wide.

The smoke surrounding Aegichusmon started to clear and as Noir was heading for a landing, he darted out of the smoke, tackling her to the ground. The horns were longer, sharper. His white hair, was longer. He was still half man, well at least one side of his face was. The other half of his face as well as both his arms were red, coursing something, red, it reminded me of lava. The armor on his thighs had changed and were now a ghost white, more elegant.

"He's fast." Katie whispered.

"We get faster and stronger when we digivolve." Cutemon said.

Noir burst into a fit of laughter. "You think you can save them?"

"I can try!" His voice was deeper, stronger, harsher. He wasn't talking, he was roaring.

He held Noir down by her throat and pulled back a fist. Noir's expression hardened. "Lighting Pile!" He started to lower his fist when Blanc jumped off of her Saberdramon.

"Divine Pierce!" She was sailing quickly and my stomach tightened until Renamon appeared out of thin air, ramming right into Blanc.

"Blanc!" Noir screamed and then lifted her hand before Aegiochusmon's fist before it could make contact.

Blanc and Renamon hit the ground in a massive heap a few feet away from Aegiochusmon and Noir.

Blanc struggled to stand up while Noir struggled to keep Aegiochusmon's attack away from her.

"I'll destroy you." She growled.

"I don't even think they need our help." Katie whispered. "We're looking pretty good."

"Those Saberdramon haven't moved yet." I whispered back.

"I'll just increase the heat." Aegiochusmon grunted and Noir started screaming.

"Sister!" Blanc screeched.

"I wouldn't worry about them!" Renamon said. I had been so focused on Aegiochusmon's struggle with Noir that I hadn't noticed Renamon had disappeared again.

"Power Paw" Renamon shouted as those blue flames engulfed her fists.

Blanc grabbed her lance and struggled to block all of Renamon's hits, but it was clear she was the weaker of the two.

"Blanc is the protector, not the fighter." Cutemon said. "Noir is stronger than Blanc. If Renamon can get a good enough hit, Blanc can be deleted."

"Deleted?" Katie whispered.

That was when Renamon caught Blanc right in the face and sent her sailing back, right into the wall of the cave.

Noir was still screeching as the pressure from Aegiochusmon's attack caused the ground beneath her to crack and shake. She still struggled to push the attack away, but it was clear it wasn't working. She groaned as her hand fell and Aegiochusmon got a direct hit, sending a blast and flurry of debris into the cave and a surrounding cloud of dust.

Katie and I instantly started coughing and covered our faces. the Saberdramon roared and judging by the increasing sound of flapping wings, I assumed they were closing in.

"Now here's the hard part…" Cutemon said.

"Just stay on alert." I said. "Once Noir and Blanc move, we move."

"If they can get rid of at least two of those Saberdramon, we'll be good." Cutemon smiled.

"Night Roar!" All three birds cried. Black-purplish feathers escaped from their wings as the birds flapped, and headed straight for Renamon and Aegiochusmon. As the feathers neared them, they turned razor sharp and Renamon jumped up, her fists still glowing blue. She punched and kicked at all the feathers, with ease and then a Saberdramon dove for her.

"Mach Shadow!" It roared as it got closer.

"Renamon! Move!" Aegiochusmon roared and Renamon instantly disappeared.

"Lighting Pile!" He jumped off the ground. He was flying right toward the incoming Saberdramon and the minute his fist collided with the massive birds beak, it screeched out in pain as electrical surges seemed to be bursting with it, before…it burst into a plethora of…data?

The other Saberdramon roared and dove for Aegiochusmon and then Renamon appeared, steering one off course. Aegiochusmon jumped out of the way and I spotted Noir and Blanc coming too.

"They're up." I said.

"I'm ready!" Katie said.

Noir raised her guns, aiming at Aegiochusmon and I jumped over the rock.

"Mickey Bull-" Her guns were about to fire, I heard them cock as I drew closer, but then I tackled Noir to the ground and her beloved pistols slid out of her hands.

"Nora!" Katie yelled.

"You!" Noir said when she saw my face.

"Sister!" Blanc lifted her lance. "I'll end this once and for all!"

"No you won't!" Cutemon hopped out of the way and positioned himself a few feet away from Blanc. "Supersonic Wave!" High frequency waves shot out of Cutemon's mouth directly at Blanc who covered her ears as the group cracked and chipped around her.

"You go Cutemon!" Katie cheered as she emerged from the cave. Noir struggled against my hold and then flipped me onto my back. I gasped and she started to laugh.

"You humans make me laugh!" Noir grinned. She pulled back a hand and seized me by my throat.

"Nora!" Katie shouted. She instantly started to throw rocks at Noir's back and when she turned to glare back at her, I lifted my foot and kicked her right in the face. Noir fell back and I stumbled to my feet just as I spotted a Saberdramon making its way toward me.

"Nora!" Katie shouted.

My eyes widened as the Saberdramon lifted but that was the least of my problems. In its place, heading toward me was a dark shadow filled with powerful winds that rammed into me, Katie, and Cutemon.

"No!" I heard Renamon shout. I was knocked off my feet and I knew once I started to fall that I was off the mountain. I opened my eyes and that only confirmed it all. I spotted Cutemon barreling toward me, his eyes covered by his hands as he screamed.

I caught him in my arms and he stopped screaming, but we were still falling, heading straight first toward the trees. I closed my eyes, wondering if this was the end. Would I die this time?

Something wrapped its arms around me and when we did finally land, I landed on whatever had caught me. Cutemon went flying out of my arms and I rolled onto the side, struggling to get air back into my lungs at a regular flow.

"Mickey Bullet!" Noir's voice yelled. I coughed and looked up only to see her firing her array of bullets at me.

Something pushed me to the side and took the hit. When the smoke cleared, I saw Renamon lying there, her eyes closed, her fur dirty.

"I've just about had it with all you!" Noir growled as she aimed her guns at Renamon. "It's over!"

"Ultrasonic Wave!" Cutemon shouted. More powerful sound waves spanned out from his mouth, but instead of hitting just Noir, they expanded to hit the entire area. The ground shook, the waves echoing in my ears, forcing me to cover my ears, to try and block the sound out. When it was over, Noir was aiming her guns at Cutemon.

"Bless Fire!" She fired and my eyes widened. Cutemon jumped out of the way, but it wasn't fast enough. He was hit and I struggled to my feet when Noir turned her guns on me.

"I can see that you're not going to go quietly." She panted. "That doesn't bother me. I'll bring you in battered and bloody, as long as you're brought into custody."

I swallowed. What was I going to do? What could I do? I looked around, searching for some sort of weapon, anything that could help me, when Noir started firing her weapons. I screamed as I struggled to dodge them, but she was aiming at my feet, causing me to trip as I ran. I hit the ground when her guns readied themselves to fire another round.

Then a vine with a thorn on its tip burst out from the tree and wrapped around Noir. She grunted and the creature that had saved me landed in front of me, holding up Noir in its viney grasp. It had horns, and it was half man and half goat. It didn't have hands, just two spike-balls where the long vines shot out of. On its back it had wings, the armor on its thighs were silver now with vines lacing them up.

"Aegiochusmon?" I whispered. Another powerful blast of wind hit me from behind and I went shooting forward.

"Nora!" I heard Cutemon pant as he raced to my side. I looked up and saw Cutemon standing beside me, gripping the fur of a tiny, yellow creature with a fluffy yellow and white tipped tale.

"Cutemon." I breathed and then looked at the creature he was holding close.

"It's Viximon." Cutemon said. "Hurry get up."

"But Rena-" I looked back but didn't see her.

"This is Renamon." Cutemon said as he pushed the Viximon onto my lap. "She de-digivolved after that last attack."

"Katie!" I called and spotted my friend, face-down a few feet away.

"Sister!" Banc was falling gently down the mountain. In one vine the creature was holding Noir and in the other a Saberdramon.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"Aegiochusmon Green." Cutemon said. "Depending on his element, Aegiochusmon can change his appearance."

"N-Nora." Katie called weakly.

I pushed myself up, clutching Viximon in my arms and ran toward her.

Katie looked up at me, her movements slow and weak.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Are you?" I countered as I touched her shoulder.

"Yeah…Aegiochusmon saved me." Katie coughed as she struggled to her hands and knees. "What do we do? I don't think our plan is working."

"Run!" Aegiochusmon shouted. "Hurry!"

"We can't leave you!" Cutemon called.

"You must!" Aegiochusmon Green growled as he struggled to hold Noir and the struggling Saberdramon in place.

"Divine Pierce!" Blanc shouted appearing in front of Aegiochusmon and jabbing her lance into his chest.

"NO!" Cutemon cried out.

"C'mon!" I shouted as I stood up.

"No!" Cutemon shouted. I stepped down hard on his scarf and he went falling face-first onto the ground. Katie rose to her feet and picked up Cutemon who was crying once again.

"Aegiochusmon!" He sobbed.

"RUN!" Aegiochusmon growled and then grunted as the ground started to shake. "Hurry!"

**Please REVIEW! I'd like to know what you think so far and thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5: Dobermon Appears

There was a powerful burst of light that filled the area, before a powerful burst of wind kicked us off our feet and sent us flying back, sending us deeper into the forest. We landed softly enough and Cutemon continued to weep uncontrollably.

"Wha-what happened?" Katie asked as she looked at me.

"We have to hurry." I said. "We have to find that bridge."

"Which way?" Katie asked. I looked down at the hysterical Cutemon and exhaled.

"Cutemon." I said.

He continued to cry.

"Cutemon I need you to be strong right now." I said.

Nothing.

"Cutemon!" I said.

"Get a hold of yourself kid!" Katie shouted. "Stop crying!"

He cut short and started hiccupping. He looked up at us, tears still brimming in his eyes.

"We need to find that bridge." I said. "Which way?"

"But Aegiochusmon." Cutemon whined.

"He's fine." I said. "But he wants us to run, remember? We have to get away from here as fast as possible so we can bring back help. That was the plan, remember?"

Cutemon sniffed and nodded. "Y-yeah."

"Alright then, where do we go? Which way?" Katie asked.

Cutemon pointed east. "We-we have to cl-climb though."

"That's fine." I said.

"Wait, where's Renamon?" Katie asked.

I nodded down to where Viximon slept in my arms. "It's Viximon now."

Katie followed my gaze and then looked back up at me.

"We have to keep moving." I said as I started to walk.

…

We had been walking for hours, on high alert thanks to Cutemon's ears, which we found out weren't ears at all, but sensory organs that were highly sensitive. Anytime he heard something, he made us duck for cover until it went away, or he deemed it to be nothing.

When we finally came to the bridge we found that it was high up and the climb wasn't going to be easy. The land that it was connected too didn't seem to have another way around it either.

"We're stuck aren't we?" Katie asked as Viximon fidgeted in my arms.

I looked down as she came to, her big blue eyes scanning the area before resting on me.

"Hey." I smiled as she hopped out of my arms.

"What happened?" Viximon asked, her voice different, no longer smooth and calm, but a lot like Cutemon's, high pitched.

"Aegiochusmon told us to run." Katie said. "Our plan…" She stopped herself and Viximon looked down, clearly upset.

"But he's fine, right?" She asked.

"Of course he is." Cutemon said.

"He told us to run." I said. "He gave us a head start, I think."

"Yeah that blast of energy sent us rocketing through the trees." Katie continued.

"Blast of energy?" Viximon looked away, dropping the subject. Even when she was adorable, she was clearly filled with attitude still.

"We should keep moving." She said finally.

"We're stuck." Cutemon said. "The climbs too high."

"We could slip and break our necks." Katie said.

"We go around then." Viximon said.

"Around?!" Cutemon exclaimed. "That could take forever!"

"It's better than standing around and waiting for Noir and Blanc to hunt us down." Viximon said as she started walking.

Cutemon sighed as we started to follow and within minutes, he was climbing up my leg and resting atop my shoulders.

"I'm tired." He said.

"Oh so you jumped on for a ride?" I mumbled.

"You should be flattered you're good for something." Katie mumbled. "My feet are definitely going to have blisters by the time this is over."

"The sun is going to set in a few hours." Viximon said. "We should be able to find shelter if we keep walking a little more."

"Why do I have a feeling that this 'little' isn't so little?" Katie groaned.

We came across a tiny cave just as the sun was going down and Viximon suggested we rest there.

We started a fire and huddled around it as it grew colder. We were silent at first and then Cutemon came with berries in his scarf. He laid it out while Viximon returned with apples. That was our meal, but looking at everyone's faces, it was clear that nothing could compare to Aegiomon's stew.

As Cutemon drifted off to sleep on my lap, I looked at Viximon, who had her tail wrapped around her body.

"That blast of energy was the last of his energy." Viximon said. "His last resort."

"What does that mean?" Katie asked as she hugged herself.

"Two things." Viximon said. "He was either captured or…"

"Or what?" Katie asked when Viximon stopped talking.

"Dead." I swallowed.

"We can only pray that that's not what happened." Viximon sighed. "He's fine."

"He made it out." I said as I lied back and placed Cutemon on my chest carefully. "He had to. He's in his home now because Noir and Blanc ran off. He destroyed that Saberdramon and now there's only one and he's…he's…"

"He's okay. He's waiting for us to bring help." Katie finished.

"Yeah." I smiled at her. "And we can't keep him hanging."

We continued the next day and it proved to be just as tiring as the previous one. However, we found a small path that winded up the mountain and seemed to end near the bridge.

"Looks shady." Katie observed.

"It's the only path we've seen for miles." I said.

"Let's go." Viximon said. "We've wasted too much time already."

The climb took about thirty minutes and there was no denying that Katie and I could barely walk straight.

"Hold on, just-just give me a minute." Katie said as she dropped to her knees.

"C'mon!" Cutemon said.

"Listen! You've been on my shoulder all this time." Katie panted. "You don't know what it is to walk for two hours straight."

"We took breaks." Viximon said.

"For like two minutes! That might be cool with you digimon, but my legs can't take it. They're gonna break and that bridge looks shaky enough." Katie said which forced us all to look at the bridge.

She was right. It was the shakiest bridge I had ever seen, the kind who's ropes looked like they were about to snap at any second. For smaller creatures like Viximon and Cutemon, they could cross it just fine, but for bigger folks like Katie and I, it wouldn't hold.

Cutemon's sensory organs started to twitch atop its head. His small eyes scanned the area before resting somewhere on the top of Infinity Mountain.

"We need to move." Viximon said, her eyes narrow.

"Parasimon." Cutemon growled. "It's just two, but I can hear more coming."

"Parasimon?" I repeated.

"Why does that sound like a digimon? I thought there were no more digimon on the mountain?" Katie sighed.

"There's the annoying digimon." Viximon said. "Parasimon are one of them."

"They're the kinds that don't take sides, besides even if they were one Parasimon isn't going to help anyone's cause, you need a whole army of them." Cutemon explained. "Now hurry!"

I helped Katie to her feet and we started across the bridge. We walked carefully and I looked back toward the mountain. Down fell three insects that were impossible to crush with a shoe. They were all purple and a bulging green eye that moved around like crazy until they spotted us. I shivered.

"Don't look back." I told Katie and of course she looked.

She screamed, which seemed to agitate the bugs and they started to shake.

"Hurry!" Viximon called. She was already across the bridge and we were only half way. Cutemon stood behind me, watching the Parasimon through gritted teeth.

"What the hell is that!?" Katie screeched.

"Just keep walking." I told her.

"Oh no…" Cutemon said.

I looked back and saw that he had stopped walking and was looking up. I followed his gaze only to find more Parasimon arriving, pouring out of the side of the mountain all of them in various sizes. I swallowed, my legs shaking.

"Run!" I shouted.

"Huh!" Katie said as I pushed her.

"Cutemon!" I shouted. At my words, he turned and jumped onto my back.

"Hurry!" Viximon shouted.

Then these green tentacles shot over our heads and Katie screamed as they cackled with electricity. I looked back and saw those Parasimon practically running toward us, their eye rolling around, not focusing on anything in particular, which only made them look crazy.

Katie hit the bridge and it shook, moving from side to side as those vines above slammed onto the bridge. There was a loud snap and then it started flipping to the side and we all screamed. I grabbed the wooden planks, shouting for Katie to do the same and the bridge slammed against the side of the opposite side. The Parasimon weren't letting up and I saw that those tentacles were shooting out from behind them. A few of them had managed to make it to the bridge and they were climbing up.

"Climb Katie!" I shouted. "Cutemon, jump onto Katie!"

Cutemon latched onto Katie's dress and she started to climb as fast as she could. I kicked a Parasimon right in the eye and watched as it slid off the bridge and right into the angry water below.

"Nora!" Katie shouted, looking down at me.

"Just hurry!" I shouted.

"Are you alright?!" Viximon shouted from on top.

"Nora's stuck!" Katie called back.

"Nora watch out!" Cutemon shouted, but it was too late.

One of the tentacles latched onto my leg and an electric current ran through my leg. I gasped as my leg locked and lay limp.

"Viximon!" HELP!" Cutemon shouted. "They're gonna get Nora!"

Two more tentacles shot up and were heading right toward me. I couldn't climb. My leg was stuck, numb. I squeezed my eyes, wondering if all the other times I had escaped death had been nothing but pure luck.

"Viximon digivolve too…"

I opened my eyes only to see Renamon appearing in front of me and slicing the two tentacles off. She kicked a few off the bridge and then grabbed me by my waist. She jumped up and grabbed Katie too, hoisting her over her shoulder. She scaled the bridge in a few seconds and just as she was pushing us over the edge, five tentacles shot up and grabbed her, pulling her down.

"Renamon!" I screamed. I raced to the edge and saw her, a few feet down, with only one hand gripping the bridge. I could see the sparks cackling around her and judging by the expression on her face, she was in a lot of pain.

"Renamon no!" Cutemon growled and then balled his tiny hands into fists. "I have to help her!"

"Cutemon, no." Katie said. "It's too dangerous. One shock from those things and you won't be helping so much as hurting."

"I can't just leave her there!" Cutemon shouted.

"Black Beam!" A black beam shot out from above and when we looked up, I saw a Doberman sailing through the sky. It landed on the side of the cliff, its sharp claws sinking into the side, like it was soil instead of solid rock. The black beam shot down at the rest of the Parasimon at the end of the bridge and destroyed them and whatever it didn't destroy; they went flying down into the raging river below.

Renamon was released and using whatever strength she had left, she jumped up to us and came crashing to the ground once she landed.

"Renamon!" Cutemon cried as he raced to her side. The dog jumped up too, landing a few feet away, and seemed to study all of us.

It had a spiked collar with piercing red eyes. Its legs were muscle, but looked about as fierce as the rest of him. Its spine was up, buried under what seemed like a soft layer of skin. It had red jewels on its thighs that matched the color of its eyes. In size, it was bigger than the average Doberman, about the size of a horse.

"Thank you." I said.

The Doberman looked at me and then down at Renamon, before it swung around, letting out a low growl. We looked across what had once been the bridge and spotted a silver dragon with a tattered red cape. It was staring at us, watching us, its golden eyes hard.

"Huckmon." Cutemon said. "What is he-"

"Hand over the humans!" He roared.

"Teen Ram!" The dragon shouted, not giving us time to react. Despite his distance from us, I could hear his voice loud and clear. He jumped off the ground, sailing across the bridge and then he started to rotate quickly, and appeared like a shiny drill as he headed across the bridge.

"Black Beam!" The Doberman shouted. It opened its mouth and fired that beam again but Huckmon dodged it, and rammed head first into the Doberman.

It sounded like it hurt, but when the Huckmon dropped to the ground, panting wildly and glaring up at the dog, it was clear who was in more pain. The Doberman remained still, the blow to its head appearing like it had merely been a small tap it had barely felt.

"Fifth Rush!" Huckmon shouted as he jumped up and tried to cut and slash at the Doberman who dodged him easily before opening his mouth.

"Black Beam!" The beam hit Huckmon directly and sent him flying over the edge, down toward the water.

"Whoa…" Katie whispered. "Did you see how easy that dog made it look?"

"Dog?" Cutemon wiggled his nose, his eyes sparkling. "That's no dog! That's Dobermon!"

"Dobermon?" I repeated.

"The digimon Aegiomon was talking about?" Katie whispered.

"You know Aegiomon?" The Dobermon asked, but I wondered where the voice was coming from. Unlike Renamon's mouth which appeared hidden at times, this digimon's mouth remained shut as it spoke. It was also surprisingly gentle for a creature so gruesome looking.

"Yes." I nodded as Renamon came too. She propped up on her elbows and looked at Dobermon.

"I was on my way to visit with him awhile." Dobermon said.

"Well he's not taking any visitors at the moment." Renamon said.

"Did something happen?" Dobermon asked.

"The Darkness came! Aegiomon put up a good fight, but we have to go to Ophanimon and bring back help!" Cutemon piped up while the rest of us fell quiet.

I could only think back to what Viximon had said last night. He was either captured or…

I swallowed, forcing a small smile at Cutemon. But there was no time to think like that. Aegiomon had fought hard and well. He was a great fighter. I could see him, in the cave waiting for us to return with an army, depending on us to bring back help.

"Aegiomon, he said to come and find you." I said.

Dobermon looked at me.

"He said you can help us get to Ophanimon." I continued. "You owe him."

Dobermon looked at Renamon. "Humans."

"Dobermon is an excellent tracker. Aegiomon was really smart when he made friends with him." Cutemon explained. "If anyone can get us there, it's Dobermon, plus with his sense of smell and my sense of hearing, we can avoid trouble."

"That's good." Katie smiled. "Sounds like we can get to Ophanimon in one piece."

"Those humans are wanted by the Darkness. The longer they are left to walk free, the more intense the hunt for them will grow." Dobermon said to Renamon.

"I'm aware." Renamon grunted as she rose to her feet.

"You're weak." Dobermon observed.

"I'll be fine."

"De-digivolve." Dobermon instructed and then he looked at me. "Because I owe Aegiomon, I will help you all, not because I want to."

"Great…more attitude than Renamon." Katie grumbled and I hit her arm lightly.

A burst of light surrounded Renamon and I watched as it shrunk. When it disappeared, Viximon stood before us, but she didn't look to happy, which only made her cuter.

"Let's go!" Cutemon smiled.

"Oh Cutemon, wait. How did you know that metal digimon?" Katie asked.

"Huckmon works for the Darkness." Dobermon said as we started to walk.

"But not always!" Cutemon protested. "He lived in Infinity Mountain too for a while, but then he was picked on by the stronger digimon."

"Because he didn't know when to shut up." Viximon said.

"Viximon!" Cutemon said. "That's not true, sure he talked a lot, but…he was still good."

"He switched sides." Viximon said. "He's not that good. He was promised vengeance and he took that route."

"He hates Renamon." Cutemon whispered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because his smart mouth always got him in trouble." Viximon growled.

"Renamon are stronger than the average Rookie digimon." Dobermon explained.

"Wait? Are? There's more Renamon other than Renamon?!" Katie asked.

"Of course." Cutemon said. "But none take the place of our Renamon."

"Shut up." Viximon said.

"So Huckmon hates Renamon because he always loses?" I asked, getting back to the topic at hand.

"Yes. They're both the same level, Huckmon and Renamon but Renamon has enough strength to take down a Champion level digimon." Dobermon said.

"Cool." Katie said.

"Champion is the next level." Cutemon said.

"So when you change a level, your appearance changes?" I asked.

"Yes. We tend to get bigger and stronger, but there are certain digimon who get smaller or who are naturally smaller and pack a powerful punch." Viximon said.

"Do you change, Cutemon?" Katie asked.

"You mean digivolve? Nope." Cutemon beamed. "Well…I don't think so."

"You never know." Dobermon said and then looked back at us. "We're heading to the Trailmon station where we will then be taken to Floramon Village."

"Yeah that's what Aegiomon said." I smiled. "Thanks again."

"And once we get to Floramon Village we'll be one step closer to helping Aegiomon!" Cutemon cheered.

Katie touched my wrist and I looked at her.

"I just thought of something." She whispered.

"What?" I whispered back.

"Remember when the two demons were drowning in the water?" Katie asked, ignoring the look I gave her. "That monster…you think it was a digimon?"

I shrugged. "With how big they are here, I wouldn't put it aside."

"That wave…it crashed into us, right? All of us. We're here, but do you think…do you think we're the only ones?"


	6. Chapter 6: Floramon Village

Episode 6: Floramon Village

It was a hard question to answer and it was also a question I had been wondering myself. It felt like Katie and I were the only ones but it also dawned on me that Ellie and Jules could have gone with us. The thought of the two of them in this world alone, was enough to make stomach turn into knots.

I couldn't give an answer, I just looked down and kept walking, dropping the subject. Truth was, it was too hard to think about.

"Hey Nora? You okay?" Cutemon asked.

I saw him looking up at me, concern shining in his eyes and forced a smile as I picked him up and put him on my lap. We had reached the Trailmon station after an hour long hike that left Katie breathless and in a desperate need to be carried on Dobermon, which she announced was not as uncomfortable as she had thought. Also in that time, Viximon digivolved back into Renamon and Cutemon had started singing.

Now, Renamon was seated on the ground beside the bench while Katie was sitting cross-legged beside me and Dobermon was lying down on the ground, his eyes locked somewhere on the left where he said the Trailmon was coming from.

"Yeah. Fine." I said.

"Don't you worry about Aegiomon, okay? He'll be fine." Cutemon said.

I smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"It should be coming." Dobermon said.

"Well it needs to hurry." Renamon grumbled. I couldn't lie and say she wasn't right. On our journey to the station, we had broken free from the surrounding forest and seemed to be in a vast oasis, which just so happened to have much lesser trees and much bigger space that seemed to stretch out for miles. We were essentially, walking targets. If a Saberdramon came now, it could easily swoop down and grab us.

"I hear him!" Cutemon cheered.

"I see him." Dobermon said and then looked back at us. "It's going to be a tight fit."

Katie and I craned our necks, struggling to see what Dobermon saw, but the sunlight was making it difficult.

"I don't see anything." Katie said, squinting her eyes.

"Why a tight fit?" I asked.

"Is it Ball?" Renamon muttered.

"Yes." Dobermon replied.

"You'll see soon enough." Renamon said as she stretched.

We wondered why, until we made out the Trailmon in the distance and it only got progressively worse the closer it got.

"I take it you call it 'ball' because it's shaped like one?" I asked.

"You sure that things okay to ride? His tongue is out…wagging…panting…he won't make it another mile." Katie said.

"He's always like that." Cutemon said as he hopped into the wagon attacked to Ball's back. The metal pieces at its side worked the way legs pedaling a bike would and that seemed to how it moved. Though it was breathing heavily, it didn't bother to look at us, it had merely wheeled to a stop in front of us and seemed to incapable of speaking.

"You can't be serious." Katie muttered. Renamon climbed on top of Ball's head while Dobermon tried to make himself as small as possible in a corner of the cart. They were right, it was a tight fit, but it worked…kind of.

"Get on we're wasting time!" Cutemon said. "Aegiomon needs us, remember!?"

I got onto the Trailmon and sat down on a small bench inside. Her whole face spelled out how unsure she was of this, climbed onto, clearly reluctant to do so. She eased down carefully before Ball started pulling out from the station. It was shaky at first, slow too, but pretty soon he was moving at a steady pace.

"How long till Floramon Village?" I asked.

"Ball! I'd like to get to Floramon Village before sunset!" Renamon growled as she hit Ball on his head.

"Hey Dobermon, how do you know Aegiomon if you don't mind me asking." Katie said.

Dobermon glanced back at us. "When I first came to Infinity Mountain, I had a hard time settling down. I used to fight a lot and eventually I got myself into a lot of trouble with some very big and strong digimon. They beat me up pretty bad and despite my bitterness toward him, Aegiomon took me in for a while."

"Even then Aegiomon has always been respected." Cutemon added. "If those bad digimon came back to get another taste of Dobermon, seeing him with Aegiomon would make them turn in their tracks."

"He nursed me back to health." Dobermon said. "Ever since then I've owed him and anytime I felt like I had repaid my debt to him…"

"You really just owed him all over again." Renamon called over her shoulder.

"That's right." Dobermon nodded.

"It's impossible to repay Aegiomon. I stopped trying a long time ago." Renamon said and then her ears perked up.

Her head snapped over to the left and we all looked and saw another Trailmon, this one blue and speeding by quickly.

"Angler." Renamon muttered under her breath and then started hitting Ball again. "You see! Angler's passing you!"

"Hey! Hey wait a second!" Katie jumped up and pointed at the train. "Is that…is that Connor?!"

That was enough to make me jump too and I squinted my eyes to see what she was talking about. sure enough in the car pulled by Angler the Trailmon, there was a muscular blonde boy with a hood pulled up over his head. He was sitting down, staring at the floor and sitting beside him was a blue bear that with boxing gloves covering its hands.

"It is!" I shouted as I started waving my arms.

"Connor!" Katie shouted.

"Who's he with?" I asked.

"Gaomon." Renamon answered. "If anything he's safe."

"That proves it, Nora! Everyone has to be here if Connor's here!" Katie smiled as she struggled to get his attention.

"That boy…" Dobermon growled.

"Connor!" Katie continued to shout and wave.

I looked at Dobermon. "You know him?"

"I don't like him." Renamon said.

"You two don't even know him." Katie said. "He's super nice! He's just…distracted I guess."

"He doesn't see us." I said. "But where is he going?"

"Angler runs straight through this area." Cutemon said.

"Angler's heading toward Tech City." Renamon said.

"Tech City?" Katie repeated as Angler sailed by.

"It's the Digital World's pride and joy, a massive city that spans for miles." Cutemon said. "I heard it's the greatest place ever! So shiny too!"

"That sounds cool." Katie said. 'Is it along the way for us?"

"It would be out of the way." Dobermon said.

"But once we save Aegiomon, we can go!" Cutemon cheered. "We can all go together!"

Katie sat down beside me, clearly disappointed in Connor. I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze and she smiled at me.

"I just hope he's okay, you know?" she said. "What if that digimon was taking him hostage? What if it works for the Darkness?"

"I'm sure the Darkness wouldn't look so gullible. Trust me, the kid's in good hands. Gaomon are known to handle every situation, with calmness and collectiveness." Renamon said.

We fell into silence then, just focusing on the ride, until I threw my head back and looked up at Renamon.

"What's Floramon Village like?" I asked.

"It's a tree." Renamon muttered.

"A massive tree, bigger than the average tree and there's a small village living within the tree."

I exchanged a look with Katie.

"I guess physics doesn't apply here." She said with a shrug.

"So it's like Infinity Mountain?" I asked. "You guys all lived in a cave."

"Kind of but much more…" Renamon searched for the word.

"I heard it was happier." Cutemon said. "More…scenic."

"Floramon are naturally happier creatures that like to live peacefully." Dobermon said. "From what I know, the Darkness hasn't touched them yet."

"It's not like they could ever fathom an attack like that. Besides, their Village has no value, it would be so easy to take them out." Renamon said.

"Pointless digimon then?" Katie asked. "Like those Parasimon?"

"At least Floramon can do something by itself." Renamon said. "Ball! Faster!"

It was silence after that, silence and an endless view of the vast oasis surrounding us. A lunch paradise with the sun setting behind us. Even with the direct sunlight, it was oddly cool, just right, with the perfect breeze and all. Then came the tunnel.

It was like it appeared out of nowhere and when we went in, we were covered in instant darkness. Moments later we emerged at the other end and found ourselves gazing up at a massive tree that was probably about the size of the Empire State Building. It wasn't only one tree, but a series of trees, all of them connected by bridges and ladders. Digimon were everywhere, but what seemed to run the place we these plant digimon, who were everywhere.

"Welcome to Floramon Village!" A bunch of them cheered at the entrance.

We hopped off of Ball, who was panting wildly. Once we were off, he started pulling back, still panting as he headed back down the tunnel.

"Welcome!" One of the plant creatures jumped in front of us and handed us flowers tied together on a string. The flowers were beautiful, all different colors and we put them around our necks, like a necklace.

"Thank you." Katie smiled. "I feel like I'm on a vacation."

"Let's not lose focus." I said and looked down at Dobermon. "From here we head to the Ice Region, right?"

He nodded. "But tonight we rest."

…

We were led to a room in the tree that claimed to be a hotel. As soon as we walked in, we came across a small gathering where a human stood in the center of it all with a smile from ear to ear.

She was small young, with a shiny brown hair pulled back into a hasty ponytail. Her porcelain skin was alive thanks to the redness emanating from her cheeks, a redness that was due to her light as air laughter escaping from her chest. Her warm brown eyes were focused on one of the plant creatures who seemed like it was in the middle of recounting a tale that was absolutely hysterical.

"Ellie?" I asked, instantly recognizing the young girl. Her head swung around and her eyes lit up as she nearly knocked the table over as she ran to me.

Wrapping her arms tightly around my waist, Ellie was clearly happy to see me and I knelt down to her level, brushing through the flyaway hairs.

"Are you okay?" I asked, unsure what else to say though, just moments before my head had been filled with questions.

"I'm fine." Ellie smiled. "Especially now that I see you guys."

Katie nodded and then leaned down close. "Demon seed here?" Out of all the kids in camp, Ellie was one of the few that Katie actually liked. The irony was that she was best friends with the one kid on camp, Katie despised, Jules. The two girls were inseparable and despite the fact that they were from each other. Jules was outspoken, bubbly, and "pretty". Ellie was simple, smart, and kind. Where Jules was cruel, Ellie was the one begging for her to stop her cruelty.

Ellie smirked. "No. I'm all alone."

I looked up at Renamon who glanced down at me.

"Another friend?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Another human!?" Cutemon said, as he turned up his nose.

"A child." Katie said. "A kid we can't leave behind."

"She has to come with us too." I said.

"Come with you? Where?" Ellie asked.

"To Ice Mountain." I explained. "We're trying to get home."

"Home?" Ellie repeated, as if the word was foreign. Then her eyes widened and she raced back to the table where the story by the plant digimon had long come to an end. Ellie reached down and picked up a sprout-looking creature.

"I don't want to leave." She said, tears shining in her eyes. It brought up another thing Ellie was, super sensitive.

"Tanemon." Renamon said.

The Tanemon looked up at Ellie and then back at us.

"Please oh please don't take Ellie away!" It begged, it's voice light and gentle.

"Tanemon's my friend! She's been with me since day one!" Ellie said. "I don't want to go anywhere!"

"Ellie…" Katie began and then stopped herself. "This world is not for us."

Ellie shook her head. "I'll be fine. I want to stay, with Tanemon. You can go."

"Not good." Katie whispered to me. "I don't know what to say."

"Tanemon can come with us." I said, as I walked over to Ellie.

"To Ice Mountain?" Tanemon repeated.

I nodded. "I'm sure when we get back home you can come and visit Tanemon too and she can come visit you too."

Ellie seemed to be thinking this over.

"But the safest place for us right now is home." I said.

Ellie looked down at Tanemon. "I'm not going to agree to come home. But I'll go with you guys."

I nodded and pulled her in for a hug. "That's all we need to hear."

"I don't remember signing up to babysit." Renamon said as she folded her arms and glared down at the shivering Tanemon.

"I will take responsibility for Tanemon." Dobermon said. "Once we reach Ice Mountain, I will make sure to bring her back here."

"That's kind of you." Katie observed.

"Who are those guys?" Ellie said, also shivering under Renamon's gaze. "Why do they look so mean?"

"This is Renamon." I said motioning up to her.

"And this is Dobermon." Katie said giving Dobermon's head a pat.

"And I'm Cutemon!" Cutemon beamed.

Ellie nodded, her eyes still glued on Renamon and slowly making their way over to Dobermon.

"They're the good guys." I smiled. "It's okay."

"Yeah they can't help the way their faces look." Katie shrugged, earning a look from Dobermon and Renamon.

Ellie nodded as the plant digimon surrounding her stepped back allowing us to crowd around the table.

"Hungry?" One of them asked.

"Yeah!" Cutemon cheered.

"We'll start off with some tea." Dobermon said.

"They have good food here!" Ellie smiled, hugging Tanemon closer to her.

I nodded and then folded my hands. "Ellie, so you've been here the whole time and you haven't…seen anything?"

"Seen anything?" Ellie repeated.

"You've been safe so far? No big birds in the sky or two weird bunny-nun and cat-nun girls running around?" Katie asked.

Ellie's brow furrowed. "I don't get it."

Katie and I exchanged a look.

"So you've been here and there hasn't been anything going wrong?" I asked.

"She wants to ask you if you've been attacked by something called the Darkness." Renamon cut in dryly.

Ellie looked even more confused and then Tanemon spoke up.

"The Darkness?"

"Yes." Cutemon said. "They're horrible! They hunt humans and destroy towns."

Tanemon seemed to think this over and then her eyes brightened.

"Darkness! I've heard of that! But there was a digimon here a few days ago! He passed by with a human I heard and he said he was going to save the world from the Darkness. So whatever you are all scared that digimon can handle it."

Renamon scoffed.

"A digimon claiming to stop the Darkness? Could it be a Chosen?" Dobermon asked.

"An idiot more like it." Renamon muttered. "One child can't be a Chosen. Plus it was the digimon bragging, not the human."

"Floramon Village is cut off from other villages. They've never seen war or devastation. Their land is lush, but not much can be gained from claiming it." Dobermon explained.

"So, what does that mean?" Katie asked.

"It means that they won't be attacked by the Darkness." Renamon muttered. "But then again…Huckmon saw us…"

"And?" Katie asked.

"Huckmon saw Dobermon too." Cutemon said.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked, feeling the sudden tension at the table mounting.

"I know Huckmon as well." Dobermon explained. "He knows of the debt that I owe to Aegiomon."

"So that means…what exactly?" Katie asked.

"It means they can follow us." Renamon said. "It means that Huckmon knows where we are and can come at any moment to find us."

"Oh well that makes me feel a lot better." Katie groaned.

"This Darkness doesn't sound very nice." Ellie said.

"It's not." Katie said.

The plant digimon came into the room, balancing trays of food. They placed the food on the table and then took the cups and started to tilt their heads. One of the petals on their petal-shell-like helmet peeled back and out from its head poured a liquid that was steaming. Despite the horrified expressions on Katie and I's face, the digimon merely bowed and skipped out the room.

Renamon lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip while Dobermon lapped at the steaming liquid in the bowl they had brought him. Cutemon chugged the drink and Ellie laughed.

"It's okay! It's really good! I had the same look on my face when I first saw it." She giggled.

"Yeah, it's Floramon Tea! The greatest tea in the whole wide Digital World!" Tanemon chimed.

"Tea, huh?" I asked as I lifted the cup.

"I think I'll pass." Katie said, pushing the tea aside and instead reached over for a bowl of soup.

"So they might be chasing us." I said as I took a small sip of the tea. It really was good, rich in taste, with a flowery aroma seeping up from the steam. I tasted a hint of cinnamon.

"Might be?" Renamon chuckled. "After what we did to them, the chase we've put them through. Huckmon hates us regardless so I'm sure he'll push everyone forward."

"What will happen here though?" Cutemon asked. "It will be devastating if Floramon Village goes out like this. They're so defenseless."

"We can lead them away." Renamon said.

By the look Dobermon gave her, I instantly knew it wouldn't be that easy. Truth was, there was no telling if Floramon Village would be spared or not. Either way, there were going to be some causalities and it was guaranteed that the massive tree these plant digimon called home was going to be hit.

"What's the plan then?" Katie asked. "Since we can't avoid it and stuff."

"We have to move out early. Hopefully they'll pick up on our scent and follow us." Renamon said.

"Hopefully?" Tanemon repeated.

"Nothing." Dobermon insisted in a kind voice.

"This human though, this bragging idiot…I'm interested in finding out exactly who he is." Renamon mumbled

"Did you see him?" Dobermon asked Ellie.

"Nope." Ellie said. "I've been here all this time. They might have told me about the kid, but…I didn't go out to look. I was having too much fun."

"You weren't scared at all?" Katie asked.

"Scared?" Ellie seemed to think about it. "Well, no, I had Tanemon. She found me and brought me over here and I've never been alone. I wasn't scared, I'm not scared when I'm with Tanemon."

"That's good." I smiled.

"This proves it then." Katie said.

"Proves what?" I asked.

"Everyone else from camp has to be here too." Katie explained.


	7. Chapter 7: The Fight for Floramon

*Hey guys! I hope you're enjoying it all so far. I'm going to try something different and do what Digimon does at the beginning of every episode, when they recap and close out with a voice. Hopefully I do them right and you guys like it! Review please like always and let me know what you think. Of course I'm sure it will get old real fast so don't expect it for very long lol*

Episode 7: The Fight for Floramon Village Begins!

[Rika's voice] Last time we left our heroes, the gang was busy fearing for what would happen if those Darkness meanies attacked Floramon Village. Katie believes the other kids from camp are in the Digital World too. The Darkness is coming and the fight for Floramon Village is about to begin!

"It's the dawn before the storm." Katie muttered as we picked the berries in the fields on the outskirts of Floramon Village.

I glanced over at her and saw her just standing there, clutching her basket, her eyes staring up into the sky, waiting for the dark mass to block the sun. I could see the fear shaking in her eyes and it bothered me that I couldn't comfort her. I knew she had been through a lot and I knew that her seeing all that devastation back at Green Terminal was what was holding her back from being optimistic.

"Everything's going to be fine!" Ellie said as she yanked at a plant out of the ground. "You'll see. If they do chase us, they'll fly right over Floramon Village. You guys said it yourself it's just a little paradise, nothing special about it, nothing special to gain."

"Yeah!" Tanemon cheered as she watched Cutemon pick the berries too.

"Tell me why instead of us taking off in the morning you humans decided to help with tonight's meal?" Renamon called. She was lounging against a tree, her arms folded, her legs crossed and eyes closed.

"It is true we should be moving, but this is something small. Besides, after such excellent hospitality they've given us and Ellie, its only right." Dobermon said.

"Couldn't have said it any better myself." Katie said with a small smile.

"It's the least we can do Renamon." I called voer to her.

"Hmph." Renamon mumbled.

"Hey Renamon aren't you helping?!" Cutemon called.

"I don't feel like getting my claws all dirty." Renamon said.

"Of course." Katie grumbled. "It's just like her."

"She's worried." I said. "Take it easy."

"Worried?" Dobermon asked.

"Yeah about the Darkness coming, right?" I asked, not that I needed the confirmation. The surprise was visible on Dobermon's face as he looked at me.

"Seems like Renamon just became an open book to you." He said as he stretched, following me with my basket in his mouth.

"I just…I don't know. I feel like I've known her forever and it's only been a few days." I smiled. "She's actually not as mean as she looks."

"I find that hard to believe. All I get from her is attitude." Katie grumbled.

I laughed and then felt it, a violent tremble that nearly made me lose my balance.

"Wh-wha-what was that?!" Cutemon said, his eyes wide.

"They're coming." Renamon growled, suddenly by my side.

The tremors were getting closer, sounding more like massive footsteps of huge digimon that were stepping in unison, like a march.

"Everyone get back!" Dobermon growled.

"There's a lot of them." Katie said, instantly horrified. "You two can't take them on."

I looked up at Renamon who jumped to Dobermon's side.

"We can handle it." She said, her eyes narrow.

That's when I spotted them, through the dense forest, blue skin, and big reptilian body, with red tribal stripes on its legs, tail, neck and face. It was a dinosaur, a massive tribal looking dinosaur with sharp white teeth and angry green eyes. There were six of them and they continued to step into the clearing. On top one of them I spotted shiny armor and the tattered red cape flowing in the breeze.

"Huckmon." I breathed.

"Who's that?!"Katie asked, pointing atop the head of one of the massive T-Rex dinosaurs.

On one of the heads, I spotted a gypsie looking digimon with streaming red hair.

"Beastmon." Renamon growled.

"This isn't good!" Cutemon said, instantly climbing up my leg and latching onto my neck. Ellie and Tanemon stood cowering behind me, their eyes wide.

"Wh-who are those people!?" Ellie cried.

"Stay back." I said. "If things get bad, you run as fast as you can, you hear me?" I turned around to face her and looked down at Tanemon. "Tanemon, I really need you to protect her, keep Ellie safe if we have to separate."

"You can count on me!" Tanemon said, the fear instantly replaced with determination.

"Renamon!" Huckmon jumped off the blue dinosaur he was on, landing with ease.

"Dobermon too." Huckmon said.

"Huckmon." Dobermon said. "I see you've brought company."

Huckmon chuckled. "With the trouble you two have been giving, yeah, I had to."

"What are you planning on doing with those big idiots?" Renamon called.

"Take over, what do you think?" Huckmon called.

"You got more of those hiding in the trees?" Renamon asked.

Huckmon laughed dryly. "Guess you're gonna have to defeat these guys to find out."

"They're Champion level digimon." Dobermon said, his voice low. "We can defeat them. It will be hard, but we can do it."

"But if he has more?" Renamon asked.

"We need a plan." Dobermon said.

"We need a distraction." I said.

"Are you plotting over there? Trying to figure out a way to escape this?" Huckmon asked. "You can't."

"Take over, huh?" Renamon called. "Floramon Village doesn't have what you want."

"Yeah well it looks like I'm going to have go through it in order to get what I want." Huckmon growled.

"Oh will you just get on with it!" Beastmon leaped off of her blue dinosaur and landed gracefully at its feet. "This is such a boring conversation. Just delete them and take the humans already."

"No!" Tanemon growled. "I'm not letting you touch Ellie!"

"Tanemon." Ellie said, her eyes welling up.

"We have to move." Dobermon said.

"I'll go first!" Renamon said, jumping into the air and disappearing.

She reappeared above a blue dinosaur and her paws became consumed in that familiar blue flame. "Power Paw!" She hit the dinosaur right on its head and it let out a vicious roar as its head hit the ground. Renamon continued to attack it while the other dinosaurs tried to bite her. She punched them all away, sometimes forcing them to bite each other in the process.

"Good Renamon! You move well!" Huckmon called.

"Just get on with it! Allomon! Attack!" Beastmon growled. "I don't have time to stand here and watch you praise that stupid little fox!"

"Who you calling stupid?!" Cutemon growled.

Beastmon swung to face us and Dobermon jumped in front of us.

"Move it dog breath!" Beastmon growled. "I only want to talk to the little bunny!"

"Be careful Dobermon, Beastmon is an Ultimate level digimon." Cutemon said.

"Is that bad?" Katie whispered.

"Dobermon is Champion, but Beastmon is one level ahead." Cutemon said. "This could go really bad really fast."

"That cat thing is stronger than Dobermon?!" Katie said, only infuriating Beastmon even more.

"That's it!" Beastmon growled as she lurched toward us.

"Black Beam!" Dobermon shouted. The black blast fired from his mouth and Beastmon dodged it with ease, her movements faster than Renamon's.

"Out of my way!" Beastmon said, grabbing Dobermon by the spikes on his collar and swinging him into the side.

"Run!" Cutemon shouted and just as I was turning, Beastmon wrapped her arms around me.

"Oh no!" Cutemon said, the sudden action forcing him to go flying to the ground. Ellie screamed as Katie ran right into her and Tanemon went flying.

"I'll handle her!" Tanemon shouted. "Bubble Blow!" Pink bubbles fired from her mouth and hit Beastmon, except they didn't seem to have a n effect. Securing me with one arm, Beastmon reached over her long limb and slapped Tanemon away.

"Tanemon!" Ellie cried.

"Nora!" Cutemon shouted. "I'll save you!"

"Power Paw!" Renamon appeared behind Beastmon and caught her right on the shoulder. Beastmon dropped me and I hit the ground. Looking back, I saw Beastmon push Renamon away and the Allomon opened their mouths.

"DINO BURST!" They shouted in unison as streams of fire shout out of their mouths.

"RENAMON!" I screamed. She dodged some of them, but I watched, horrified as two blasts caught her right on.

"Black Beam!" Dobermon said, turning two of the Allomon into dust.

But at that same time, another Allomon came charging, his head low. "DYNAMITE HEAD!" It rammed into Dobermon and sent him flying.

"Dobermon! No!" Katie cried.

"Renamon!" I shouted as I ran past Beastmon who was gripping her burning shoulder.

I came skidding to a stop when I saw Renamon lying on the charred ground. Her fur was burnt and she was in pain, a lot of pain. Her teeth were gritted, her hands balled into tight fists and she struggled to open her eyes.

"Renamon!" I raced to her side, cradling her head in my lap. "Say something." I begged, tears lighting my eyes.

"You know something, Renamon." Huckmon shouted. I looked up.

"I was just going to maybe knock the village around a bit, teach them all a lesson, teach them the Darkness name, but I guess, now I don't want to." Huckmon called. "I think I'll go right ahead and destroy it!"

"Burn it all to the ground." Beastmon hissed, her eyes wide, making her vicious. "Saberdramon!" There was a rustling in the trees as the army of Saberdramon descended from the trees, shooting up into the sky and blocking out the sun as they seemed to over the sky.

"Tanemon!" Ellie cried as she scooped up the wounded digimon in her arms, cradling it.

"M-m-my home." Tanemon sniffed. "I-I ca-can't give up!"

"Don't! You're going to hurt yourself!" Ellie cried.

"I think I'll even delete you, or better yet, I'll take you all to Aegiomon and force you to watch while we torture him." Huckmon said.

"What is wrong with you?!" I shouted. "Aegiomon meant something to you too!"

"He did. But that, that was a long time ago, human." Huckmon's eyes narrowed. "I'm tired of you too."

"Yeah well I can say the feeling is mutual." I said. I gently placed Renamon's head back on the ground and stepped in front of her. "I'm not letting you hurt her! So if you want her you're gonna have to go through me first you annoying little brat!"

"Nora! No!" Katie called.

"N-N-Nor-Nora! Run!" Renamon struggled.

"I'm not leaving you behind! We've been over this!" I said, glancing back at her briefly and then glaring at Huckmon. "Bring it you tiny hunk of metal!"

"Baby Flame!" Huckmon shouted as a fireball shot out of his mouth. But before it could come close, Cutemon jumped in the way.

"Supersonic Wave!" He shouted and I watched the fireball disintegrate.

"Try again!" Cutemon said as he took a deep breath.

"Ultrasonic Wave!" Cutemon said, this time his attack was a lot bigger, his cry ear-splitting and it caused Huckmon's armor to crack and Beastmon to scream.

"Black Beam!" Dobermon growled, destroying another Allomon. He jumped onto one of the Allomon and bit its neck.

"Teen Ram!" Huckmon, emerged from the cloud of dust that Cutemon's attack had created and using his spinning drill-like tail, he hit Cutemon.

"No!" I shouted as Cutemon went flying and landed, a defeated heap on the ground.

"Baby Flame!" Huckmon fired again, this time at me and my eyes widened as the flame closed in and there was no one around to pro-

Something rammed into me and I hit the ground, the fire ball flying right over my head.

I looked over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of my hero and spotted Renamon, shivering.

"Renamon!" I grabbed her fur as she rolled onto her side.

"You didn't move." Renamon struggled.

"Why are you doing this to yourself! You're hurt!" I said, tears lighting my eyes. "You should've ran when you had the chance!"

Renamon was silent, struggling to stand up.

"Stop it! Just get out of here!" I said. "Let them take us we'll be fine! It's not worth risking your life for!" I said. "Please Rena-"

"We've done this before." Renamon managed. "Let's face it kid, we're stubborn. We tell each other to run and we end up doing the exact opposite. I'm not giving up. This fight will never end and I'll give it my all until I don't have any more to give."

"Renamon…" I said, my tears falling down my ruddy cheeks.

Renamon shot me a sharp look. "Where's your hope?"

I froze.

"Where's your faith?"

More tears fell.

"If there's one thing I know about you, Nora other than that annoying habit you have of not listening, it's that you never give up and I know that deep down you don't want me to stop fighting. So stop crying and help me." Renamon said, her voice harsh, but her words inspiring me.

I wiped my tears away. She was right. Where was my hope? Things had always looked bad for us in the past, but somehow, someway we always made it through. I couldn't sit here worrying about losing Renamon, because that was the last thing on her mind. She was going to fight, with all she had and that was how we were the same, we would give it all we had.

I balled my hands into tight fists as a beeping sound started to sound from my pocket.

"Wha-?" I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cellphone, something I had never even thought to check for, something I had never felt until now. It was glowing a weird static taking over the screen and then it started to glow, becoming engulfed in a ball of light that covered my entire hand and wrist.

"What's happening?!" I said, holding out my hand. When the light cleared, I had a strange watch my wrist, with a black strap and yellow design. The screen started to glow and something came out of it, a golden rectangle that had a sun atop a mountain engraved on its face.

I held it in the palm of my hand and looked up at an aching Renamon, who was just as blown away as I was.

"That's-that's the, Crest of…crest." She couldn't finish as she fell down to one knee.

"The Crest of Hope." Huckmon finished and I looked at him. "That girl….that girl…she's a Chosen!"

My eyes widened as the watch started to talk, a terrible radio transmission of a gentle sounding female voice.

"Digivolution."

"Nora!" Katie called.

The watch started to glow and light burst out of it, shooting right at Renamon. Her body was consumed by the light and my eyes widened.

"Renamon…Digivolve…To…"

She was changing, getting bigger and the light changed with her, forming creature with nine tails and was on all fours. When the light vanished, a new digimon stood in Renamon's face and a shining golden chain was around its neck, gleaming in the sunlight. The small rectangle in my hand, the Crest of Hope flew into the chain, sliding into the small space with ease.

"Kyubimon." Kyubimon was a yellow nine-tailed fox with a white mane and mystical blue flames flaring around her paws and tail tips. She was…beautiful, powerful.

Her white tip-flamed paws and tales, flowed gracefully and the massive bow like collar with bells on the end looped gracefully around her neck. The Yin/Yang symbol were on all of her legs, on the upperpart of her leg.

"Kyubimon." I said, my eyes wide.

"Destroy them!" Huckmon shouted.

"I don't think so." Kyubimon said as the remaining Allomon closed in on us.

"Dragon Wheel!" Kyubimon started to spin very fast, causing the flames on her body to erupt into a fiery inferno. Her body turned into a ball of swirling blue fire. Then a mystical dragon, emerged from her body and shot out, destroying the remaining Allomon.

"Way to go Kyubimon!" Katie cheered.

"NO!" Huckmon growled.

"Come here you little runt!" Dobermon growled charging for Huckmon who merely slapped him with his tail as he jumped up.

"We have to retreat for now." Huckmon growled. "We're not prepared for this!"

"That's fine, they're fighting the wrong digimon anyway." Beastmon said as she burst into a cruel laugh and I gasped.

"No! The village!" I shouted. Kyubimon landed by my side and looked at me.

"Get on!" Using the bow as a grip, I managed to climb onto Kyubimon's back and Ellie, Tanemon and Cutemon hurried over. Katie got on Dobermon's back and she gripped the spikes on his collar as they started to run for the village.

Thick black smoke was erupting from the tree, covering the area and making it hard to breathe as we rushed past a cackling Beastmon and an angry Huckmon.

"I hope we're not too late!" Cutemon said.

We burst into the village, through the dense smoke and all we saw were those black fireballs slamming into the Floramon tree and all the plant digimon scurrying around in pure panic.

"How are we going to do this?! How are we going to beat them!?" Katie asked as we were sliding off of our digimon.

"I'm going up." Dobermon said as he quickly raced up the tree.

"I got this." Kyubimon said as her nine tails spanned out behind her. "Fox Tail Inferno!" The blue flames on Kyubimon's tails became brighter, and ghostly faces appear on them. The faces then became small fireballs which Kyubimon launched at the Saberdramon above destroying three Saberdramon in an explosion of energy.

"Alright! Kyubimon!" Cutemon cheered.

"Go get em' Dobermon!" Katie shouted.

Dobermon was already at the top of the tree and he jumped up, at eye level with a Saberdramon. "BLACK BEAM!" The black beam fired right through the Saberdramon and shot through three more. The sun finally shined through, hitting the tree and bringing the true damage to light.

It was terrible, devastating more like it. I heard cries for help, actually digimon crying, but I also saw some of them scattered around the foot of their tree, some knocked out and others in pain.

"Oh no!" Tanemon cried.

"They're retreating!" Cutemon growled.

"Kyubimon! Don't let them get away! Make them pay!" I shouted. Kyubimon nodded in response and jumped, scaling the tree with ease as she used her Fox Tail Inferno to destroy the retreating Saberdramon.

Dobermon helped too, firing his Black Beam at the Saberdramon Kyubimon couldn't hit.

I stood, hands in tight fists at my sides, watching it all go down as the rage within me built up. When it was done, the sky was clear and I could hear the distant cries of the Saberdramon that managed to get away. Kyubimon and Dobermon landed in the field, out of breath, but pleased with their work. Kyubimon's body burst into light and I watched as it shifted back to Renamon.

"The village." Dobermon said, his voice low.

"We're too late."

"No." Renamon said. "It's still standing. Nothing a little construction can't handle."

"But look at them, they're-" I began but was cut off by a voice.

"It's okay…" A soft voice whispered.

The voice belonged to a wounded digimon that resembled a bunch of potatoes. It had shiny red eyes with red cheeks and it was looking right at us, a faint smile on its lips.

"You've arrived."

"Jagamon!" Tanemon hopped out of Ellie's grasp and raced to the digimon's side.

"Tanemon…these humans…that human…" Jagamon coughed. "You're here…you're really here."

"Save your energy." Renamon said.

"The Chosen. A real Chosen!" Jagamon's eyes shined with tears. "I never could believe it!"

I smiled softly and patted his head.

"They said…they always said you were here to save us…you're here to end this."

"I'll try my best." I smiled.

"You have to move on!"

"Keep going!"

"Keep fighting!"

The voices shot up around us coming from all the wounded digimon, who were forcing themselves to stand and smile.

"We'll be fine. Don't worry about us." Jagamon continued. "Keep moving! Save us!"

"Save the Digital World!" All the digimon cried out.

"I can't believe it!" Cutemon beamed as he looked up at Renamon. "You're a Chosen! I know a Chosen!"

Renamon wordlessly touched the silver chain around her neck, running a finger over the Crest of Hope and it seemed to empower her to smile as she looked at me.

"We'll do better than try. We'll do it." She said and I couldn't help but smile at her confidence.

[RIKA'S Voice]

So I guess our heroes are moving on up! What lies ahead for Renamon and Nora? Find out on the next episode of Digimon: Darkness Rises!


	8. Chapter 8: Promises, Promises

**It's time for some appearances! Enjoy everyone and I hope you all like it and review please!**

Episode 8: Promises, Promises

[RIKA'S Voice]

Last time the gang stumbled upon a beaten Labramon who said his village was under attack by the Darkness. Everyone rushed to the village only to find that another Chosen Child had appeared and driven off the Darkness. The Chosen kid turned out to be Austin and before everyone could reunite, a huge fight happened. Things were going good, until Beastmon cracked the surface and the data streams burst out, sucking up the gang and sending them to different places throughout the Digital World! It's pretty crazy, but hopefully everyone is okay.

I came to on a makeshift bed. I was in a home of some kind, a dirt home, with hardened mud making up the roof. I sat up on my elbows, looking around the small room. There was a small firepot with a big cauldron over the fire and it was bubbling, nearly foaming over. There was a small sofa, low table with five pillows for seats in the center of the room.

"Well it's good to see you awake, child." An elderly voice drifted from somewhere behind me and I swung around my eyes wide.

It was an old woman with gray hair and gray bangs that shielded her mouth. She was dressed in colorful robes but to me looked like a cross between an old witch and a ragdoll with the way her lips looked like they were stitched together. In one of her hands she held a broomstick and in the other a basket of wildflowers. She wobbled into the room, setting her basket on top of the table and her broom on the ground. She hurried over to the cauldron while she continued to speak.

"Here I was wondering if you would ever wake up, child. You've been asleep for hours already."

"Who-who are you?" I asked.

"Me? Oh dear, my name is Babamon. I'm the old sage of Ranamon's Village."

"Ranamon?" I repeated.

"Oh yes, this village was named after the Legendary Warrior of Water. If you're up for some sight-seeing, you can go and look at the temple on top of the hill." Babamon said as she stirred whatever was inside the pot.

"Ho-How did you find me?" I asked.

"You were lying in the fields, sound asleep dear." Babamon said as she poured some of the liquid in the cauldron in a cup. "Here you go dear, this will help you regain your strength."

I took the cup from her and took small sips of the drink, my eyes never leaving her face. "But wait…my friends."

"Friends? Dear you were the only one there." Babamon said.

"Only one? No, Renamon and Cutemon were with me."

"Renamon? Cutemon? I've never seen one of those around here, at least not for a long time. It's been so long, dear."

I looked down. "We got separated." I said to myself, wondering how that was possible. I remembered feeling Renamon's arm around my waist, it had been secure. She wouldn't let go so easily. But somehow, she did.

"But dear, your friends couldn't have gone very far." Babamon said as she pulled a small stool over to my side. "I can take you to a Trailmon station if you'd like. Good old Buffalo probably saw your little friends."

"I came through a portal. I was in a village not too far from Floramon Village. I was there with my friends, we were on our way to Ice Mountain." I said.

"Floramon Village you say! Oh my, that's on the other side of the Digital World dear. You've come a long way."

"What?!" I shouted, unable to hold it back.

"Oh but don't worry, Ice Mountain is a lot closer to here, if anything Buffalo can probably take you real close." Babamon said with a smile.

"I can't go anywhere without my digimon." I said as I started to rise. Babamon caught sight of my digivice and smiled.

"So persistent dear." She observed.

I opened the door and looked back at the Babamon, still sitting by the bed. "Thanks for watching over me, but I really need to go and find my friends."

Babamon nodded. "Dear…You should stay in here."

"Stay?" I said and shook my head. "I can't stay."

"No dear." Babamon hopped out of the stool and slammed the door shut pointing over at the window. "You can't go out there, they'll see you."

"Who?" I asked and allowed Babamon to guide me toward the window where I parted the curtain slightly.

"What the…" This little mud house wasn't a home, it was barely that. It was evident from the darkened and smoky skies and the digimon moving along in chains that this was a camp of some kind, where of the village's inhabitants were slaves.

"What…what happened here?" I asked.

"The Darkness dear, surely you've heard of it." Babamon said. "Since you're Chosen And all."

I looked at her. "They imprisoned all your people?"

"Imprisoned? We didn't have a choice. I'm a Mega level digimon, but I'm no match for LadyDevimon's army. They're relentless and they're endless."

"How did you sneak me in without them noticing?"

"I took you through the underground tunnel of Ranamon's shrine. I saw your digivice and I knew I couldn't leave you there. I've heard about what they're doing to the Chosen children, how they're locking them away and keeping them weak and I told myself if I ever came across a Chosen I would do my best to keep them safe."

I pushed the curtain back and leaned against the wall. "I need Renamon. I need to find her so we can free everyone."

"Dear, I suggest you get as far from here as possible. I'll guide you through Renamon's temple and I suggest you run out of this land. If you're caught all hope will be gone." Babamon said. "It's far too much to handle here unless you have an army of your own."

I hugged my knees to my chest when someone started banging on the door.

"Babamon! Open up! We hear voices in there! Who's in there with you?" An angry voice growled.

"Oh no." Babamon gasped and then pulled me up to my feet, guiding me over to a closet where she gently pushed me in. "Stay in there, dear. Don't make a sound."

She shut the door slightly, but left it open a crack. I peered through the crack and watched as she opened the door and it swung open. In stormed three large digimon with clubs and big mouths filled with two rows of sharp teeth. They were skinny ogre creatures with boney spiked clubs and striped skirts.

"Can I help you Fuga-" One of the ogre caveman looking things lifted their club and knocked Babamon back, sending her flying right against her cauldron and causing its contents to spill over.

"Check the house." The ogre ordered the other two.

"Sorry to come barging in, Babamon." My eyes widneed. I recognized that voice.

"But I've received word that a human was sent to this area and I've been ordered to search the perimeter, make sure none of your worthless people are hiding them." Noir walked into the room. "So don't interfere, please."

I felt my body tense as the ogre digimon started flipping things over and Babamon stood up with the help of her broom.

"I won't get in your way, I just wish you had given me the chance to clean a bit." Babamon said.

Noir smiled and then looked at the ogre digimon. "I don't mind a mess."

"But I can't allow you to keep on looking." Babamon said. "Empress Haze!" Babamon opened her mouth and out shot a thick gas that was aimed at the ogre digimon and Noir, who narrowed her eyes.

"I can't see!" The ogre's cried and it was then that I pushed the closet door open.

"Run child!" Babamon called to me from somewhere in the dense smoke and I let my hand slide against the wall trying to feel my way to the exit.

I made it out of the house and stumbled out onto the dirt road.

"HUMAN!" A bunch of those ogre's cried, making me nearly jump in my skin.

"Evil Hurricane!" One of them aimed their club at me and I watched a mini-hurricane shot out of it, hitting the ground beneath my feet. I went flying back just as Noir and the other ogre's inside of the house stumbled out.

"You!" Noir coughed, her expression dark.

I scrambled to my feet and started to run.

"Fugamon! Get her!" Noir shouted.

"This is so bad!" I cried as I darted between mud houses, struggling to find some sort of safety. _Renamon, where are you_?

"Heavy Stick!" A shadow appeared above me and I looked up only to see one of those Fugamon jumping off of a roof of a nearby mud house and his club above his head.

I screamed as I jumped out of the way and the Fugamon landed where I had been, his stick slamming into the ground causing it to crack and tremble.

"I got you now!" The Fugamon said as he raised his club.

I wanted to move out of the way, my body screamed for me to move, but it was also locked up and all I could do was stare, wide-eyed as the stick started to lower.

"Pepper Breath!" A small fireball was fired from somewhere on my left and slammed into the Fugamon who went flying back. I looked over and saw a three foot tall t-rex looking digimon with amber skin and light green eyes standing a few feet away from me.

"Are you okay?" It asked me, its voice gentle.

I nodded slowly and then looked over at where the Fugamon had fallen. Three more Fugamon appeared and aimed their clubs at me.

"Hey kid get up!" The small t-rex ordered. I pushed myself up but it was too late.

"Evil Hurricane!" The Fugamon shouted.

"Pepper Breath!" The t-rex cried out, his attack destroying one of the hurricanes. The other two were coming right for me. I turned, trying to dodge them, but instead felt them hit my back and someone run right into me from the side. I hit the ground, the air knocked out of my chest and I felt someone on top of me, pinning me to the ground.

I opened my eyes and saw a boy with spiky brown hair and eyes and lightly tanned skin hovering over me. His voice was far away and all I could do in that moment was stare up at him, searching his eyes, wondering why they looked so familiar.

"Hey! Are you okay!?" Finally his voice broke through the sound barrier and I gasped as the air rushed back into my lungs. My hands swung up and grabbed his firm shoulders and I struggled to slide out from under him while the Fugamon closed in.

"Pepper Breath!" The t-rex continued to fire its fireballs at the Fugamon but it was starting to have little effect.

"Agumon!" The boy called to the t-rex. "I think it's time you digivolved!"

"Right, Tai!" The t-rex called. The boy, Tai held up a small rectangular tamagotchi looking thing and it started to glow.

"Agumon…digivolved…too!" A bright light surrounded Agumon's body, and he began to grow. When the light cleared, a bigger digimon stood in Agumon's place.

"GREYMON!" A massive amber colored, blue striped dinosaur stood in Agumon's place and it was insane. It had piercing red eyes that were wide and angry and sharp claws and sharp teeth. There was also a beetle-like brown helmet on its head. It let out a vicious roar which forced the Fugamon to come screeching to a stop.

All the Fugamon held up their clubs and aimed at Greymon. "EVIL HURRICANE!"

"NOVA BLAST!" Greymon spewed flames from its mouth which cut down the Fugamon's attack and hit them in a powerful blast. Their cries were silenced within seconds as they were reduced to dust in the process.

"Good job, Greymon!" Tai called and then it hit me.

Of course I knew this kid. He went to my high school back on Earth and last I knew he was a senior and a star soccer player. I stood up, staring at the smiling boy in front of me before he and the Greymon turned to face me.

"You okay?" Tai asked, appearing heavily concerned, as if somewhere between him knocking me to the ground had forced me to have some sort of severe head injury.

"Huh? No, I'm good." I forced a smile and Tai nodded. He reached out, his hand brushing my arm when I caught sight of something jumping out from the trees.

A hand firmly gripped Tai's hand in mid-air and I looked over to who it belonged to.

"Renamon!" I smiled. "Cutemon!"

"Nora! We were looking everywhere for you!" Cutemon smiled, jumping right into my open arms.

"Don't touch her." Renamon growled, which thanks to the coldness in her gaze, forced Tai to laugh weakly. He was scared of her, which was something I couldn't blame him for. Behind him, Greymon tensed and Renamon shot him a cold look as well.

"Renamon its okay, he saved me. Greymon too." I insisted.

"Hmph." Renamon let go of Tai's hand and then stood behind me, sizing up the Greymon.

"Thank you." I smiled.

"Yeah…no problem." He couldn't tear his gaze away from Renamon who was still glaring at him.

"Renamon, we have to go back to that village. Noir is there and she has all the villagers in this weird camp type of thing. It's like they're hostage in their own village!" I said, facing her.

"Then let's go." Renamon said.

"Hey wait, there's no way you can take that on by yourself." Tai said.

Renamon glared at him. "What are you and your overgrown pet going to me?"

"Yeah Renamon's strong too!" Cutemon said. "And she's even stronger with Nora! They're Chosen Ones!"

Tai shook his head. "Even if I did help you, it's dangerous going back there."

"Why should I listen to you, boy?" Renamon glared. "I know you. You're one of the First to come to our world. I get that you've seen things in your time, but our world isn't like the one you remember, as I'm sure you've noticed. I've handled worse situations than that before.

"No, you don't get it. It's so close to the LadyDevimon's base, they can easily call for backup and then what you'll basically fight until you can't anymore and where does that put you three? You'll be captured and since you're Chosen if you ask me it's a waste of time." Tai said.

"So what are you suggesting?" Renamon said.

Tai stuffed his hands into his pockets while Greymon changed back to Agumon and made his way to his Tai's side.

"I have friends, the rest of my team. I can find them and then we can attack the village together, handle the problem." Tai said.

"Who says I'm interested in waiting that long?" Renamon asked.

Tai sighed. "It's better than risking her life, don't you think?"

"Renamon." I interrupted, before Renamon had a chance to speak up again. I looked back up the path that led to the village and then back at Tai. "He's right."

"But Nora-" Cutemon said.

"He's right. I was there. I was in that village and Noir just kicked her way inside. It's a bunch of Fugamon and I have no doubt that you can't handle it, but it is too risky. That village is way too big. We would need more people, even though it's hard to say."

"Fine. We can look for the others too." Renamon said.

"You didn't find Katie and Ellie?" I asked.

"I don't sense them anywhere." Cutemon said.

I nodded. "We're on the other side of planet."

"We are." Renamon mumbled. "The others could be anywhere."

"Others?" Tai asked.

"My friends." I said. "There might be digimon with them, but they're not Chosen Ones, I mean I don't think they are."

Tai nodded, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Tai, what do we do?" Agumon asked. "We have to find Sora and the Matt still."

"Why are you here?" Renamon asked. "Did they suck you all in too?"

Tai shook his head. "My friend Izzy keeps in touch with all of the digimon on our team and at the time Tentomon, his digimon, told him about all these attacks. I came here with two of my friends figuring we could handle everything, but the portals are messed up and we were scattered. I need to find them if I want to get into any real fights and stop all the madness here."

"Yeah well we haven't seen anyone." Cutemon said.

"Do you know where they might be?" I asked.

Tai shook his head. "I lost touch with Izzy when I got here."

"So you've been travelling around aimlessly looking for your friends?" Renamon asked.

Tai nodded and then laughed nervously. "It's all I can do."

"Maybe Ophanimon can help find your friends. She is wise and she was going to help us get Katie and Ellie back home, so maybe she knows where they are and where your friends are too." Cutemon said.

"Good idea, Cutemon." I smiled.

"We better move." Renamon said, her voice low. "I sense more Fugamon coming.'

"What do you think?" I asked Tai. "Are you up for it? We'll help you find your friends, because we have to find ours too."

Tai nodded. "Yeah, I guess it's better than what I was doing before."

"Great. Fantastic. Move." Renamon said, nudging me down the dirt road to more forest.

We started walking then and I couldn't help but steal glances back at Tai

"What's wrong?" Cutemon whispered.

"Nothing." I mumbled. "I just…I wish Katie was here. I wish I knew if they were all okay." I mumbled.

"It's not Katie I'm worried about." Renamon mumbled.

I looked up at her.

"It's Ellie and Tanemon." She continued.

I nodded.

"Oh that's right, Tanemon is an In-Training digimon. She can't defend herself much."

'Yeah." Renamon said.

"There's a Trailmon nearby Tai." Agumon said. "It can take us close to Ice Mountain."

"Trailmon? I haven't been here for a while now have I?" Tai laughed lightly. "Was that those train looking things?"

Agumon nodded. "Yup."

"Hmph." Renamon mumbled. "I'm going on ahead."

Before I could protest, Renamon was gone, disappeared in thin air and I felt my lips press into a tight line.

"What's wrong with her?" Cutemon asked.

"I don't think your partner likes me." Tai called.

I stopped walking and looked back at him, waiting for him to catch up to me.

"She's just…that's just the way she is." I said. "Trust me I thought she didn't like me either when I first met her."

Tai smiled. "No kidding?"

"I take it you and Agumon are really strong." I said.

Tai shrugged. "I guess. But we're having a little problem with holding our Ultimate form, aren't we Agumon?"

Agumon sighed. "Yeah, but I'm getting better, it's just hard holding it and keeping my energy up."

"It'll get better." Cutemon chimed before hopping over to Agumon's snout and starting a conversation with him.

Tai moved closer to me and I shot him a half-smile.

"I couldn't help but notice that Renamon has the Crest of Hope around her neck." He said.

I looked up at him. "Yeah, why?"

"My friend. T.K., he's the carrier of that crest, but I've noticed I don't even have mine anymore." Tai said absently touching his neck.

"What was yours?" I asked.

"The Crest of Courage." Tai said. "Even worse than that I don't even remember having it before I came here either. It's like one day I had it and the next day I didn't. I can't even tell you how long it's been."

"You don't sound too worried about it." I observed. "I'd be freaking out."

Tai shrugged. "Seeing you I take it you're new. You're a Chosen kid that just became a Chosen kid."

I nodded.

"So I guess that means the Crests found new holders." Tai shrugged. "Maybe that's why Agumon is having trouble digivolving more because now he has to come up with the extra power that allows him to digivolved in the first place as well as keep the form. If that's the case I can only imagine how hard it will be to digivolved to Mega." He scratched his head and I looked down at the ground.

"Have you seen any other kids here?" I asked.

"Huh? Uhh, not really. I mean when I first came here, Agumon and I barely managed to escape a fight without being captured like these other kids. He digivolved to Ultimate, but then he didn't hold it and then I had him digivolved to Greymon and it wasn't enough and then things got bad and we had no other choice but to retreat. It was around there that we started hearing about this LadyDevimon and this Darkness."

I nodded. "It's terrible and Renamon says it's my job along with others to save this place."

"Yup. You and your partner and your team. All working together." Tai smiled. "Once you find your team you'll be okay."

"Hopefully I find my team." I said."

We burst out from the thick forest and found ourselves on top of a little hill.

"Finally." Renamon's voice drifted from my left and I found her leaning against a tree.

"Sorry we took so long, Renamon." Cutemon said.

"Buffalo's down there. About to take off in a few minutes. We can convince him to change his course and ask him to take us to Ice Mountain." Renamon said coolly.

She started walking and Cutemon hopped off of Agumon, racing after Renamon and latching onto her tail as she walked.

"She's…really something else." Tai said.

I smiled. "We better hurry after her. She won't hesitate to leave us behind."

Renamon confinced Buffalo who looked like a cross between a train and an actual buffalo to take us to Ice Mountain. It wasn't an easy feat, but she had done it and as we settled into our seats, Buffalo pulled out of the station.

"Next Stop is Ice Mountain!" Buffalo's voice boomed through the speakers as we started off.

I sat hugging my legs to my chest when Renamon sat down beside me.

"Worried?" She asked.

"I'm just wondering if we made the right choice. Leaving that village. That Babamon, she helped me, dragged me from the field after we went through the portal. She even helped me escape. I'm imagining what they might be doing to her…"

"You said it yourself, Nora. We can't fight them and frankly, I get the point. But, if you didn't want to, I would've have given it all I had."

"I know. You always do."

"If you wanted to stay, we would've."

"I know."

"We can get of this Trailmon now and head back if you want."

"No."

"Well then…guess we're going to Ice Region." She watched Cutemon talk with Tai and Agumon, his brown eyes sparkle as Tai recounted some story about the "old" Digital World.

"Do you think Ophanimon can help us?" I asked. "Do you think she can help us find everyone?"

"I can tell you that Dobermon would push on and if he is with Katie and somehow Ellie as well they'll be there when we get there, or on their way. But…if Ellie is by herself, that's the only one we should worry about."

"Austin?" I asked. "What about him and that, that digimon…"

"Coronamon. I've never seen one of those before, so I'm not sure, but I will say that he seemed strong. If they've survived this far and had the ability to brag about their power…they'll be fine."

I nodded. "Good…I guess."

"That boy…that Agumon…they're strong too." Renamon mumbled. "We can take on whatever comes our way. Their whole problem about not being able to digivolve to Ultimate…that won't be a problem for us. As long as they can fire off one attack, we'll be fine."

I smiled. "So you do like them."

"Don't push it." Renamon mumbled as she closed her eyes, ending our conversation.

[RIKA'S Voice]

Well at least she admitted that Tai and Agumon were strong. Our heroes are heading off to the Ice Region where hopefully they'll get a clue as to where the others might be. Things are definitely getting interesting now.


End file.
